EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 225 



of this organization think the project feasible. An effort is now being made 

 to organize a stock company for the purpose of going into the commission 

 business in the Detroit market. The Uve stock shipments from cooperative 

 organizations now greatly outnumber receipts from commercial drovers. 

 This organization is slowly maturing and is already a substantial factor in 

 the protection of the live stock interests of Michigan. 



The Fruit Growers Organization handled a very large volume of business 

 during the last season and considerable progress has been made in maturing 

 the present cooperative institution toward a more comprehensive and more 

 powerful organization. Plans for the reorganization of the fruit interests 

 have been carefully studied during the year. These plans include the uniting 

 of the grape interest wdth the peach and apple growers' organizations and the 

 still further organization of the smaller fruit interests, including cherries, 

 berries and other bush fruits. To these three divisions a still further project 

 includes the organization of district wide cannmg corporations directly associ- 

 ated with the selling organizations to be still further supplemented by cold 

 storage facilities which are to be used for pre-cooling and for temporary 

 storage for tree fruits. Completion of this project would place the Michigan 

 fruit interests in the foreground in point of comprehensive organizations. 



The principal attention of the Markets department, as regards commodity 

 exchanges has been devoted to the completion of the Michigan State Farm 

 Bureau Elevator Exchange. This organization was started during the year 

 with an initial membership of 20 cooperative elevators and now has a total 

 of 92 local members, with prospects of a total of 100 or over before the next 

 annual meeting. This institution was like the Michigan Potato Growers' 

 exchange and the Michigan Live Stock Exchange, without proto-types and 

 naturally many difficulties were encountered in setting up a new organiza- 

 tion of this type, for which there were no precedents. The Elevator Exchange 

 is now, without question, the largest factor in handling the grain of the State 

 and is generally considered by all concerned as being remarkably successful. 

 The total volume of business for the month of June was approximately 

 $600,000. The estimated savings for cooperative elevators, on the basis 

 of its present volume, is approximately $100,000 per year. 



The problem of developing some working arrangement between the Michi- 

 gan State Farm Bureau and the several commodity exchanges in the State 

 has been very difficult and has required more time and attention than all 

 other marketing problems in the State combined. 



The rather unique ambition of the Michigan State Farm Bureau to take 

 on extensive economical activities, brought it into more or less direct conflict 

 with the commodity exchanges already established, due to the co-extensive 

 character of these organizations. The farm bureau as organized in Michigan, 

 is of the mass type, being composed of all farmers without regard to the vari- 

 ation of their agricultural interests. Its government is based on representa- 

 tion from political divisions or counties. 



The commodity exchanges on the contrary are combinations of local associ- 

 ations built around single or closely related commodity interests. These 

 exchanges correspond largely to the districts or sections of the State best 

 adapted to certain crops. 



As the Farm Bureau membership is co-extensive with the management of 

 the commodity organizations, conflict would be inevitable, provided that 

 some plan was not arranged to harmonize Farm Bureau activities with the 

 other organizations. 

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