SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 427 



which he rings the ears of his animals. The weights are very carefully 

 checked at both shipping and receiving points, after which a carefully 

 audited cost-finding system is maintained on each lot that is purchased 

 up to the time that it is sold. 



The secret of whatever success the Wausau plant may have had is 

 undoubtedly due to its careful auditing system and the very careful con- 

 trol which the manager has of the plant. He has had to train a number 

 of his men, which is perhaps an advantage, but during the year of its op- 

 eration, this plant has only run one day at full capacity. It is located in 

 a section of the country that is not strictly a live stock section, and it 

 must depend upon future development for a supply from nearby points. 

 Up to the present, it has purchased from as far away as South St. Paul, 

 and from Green Bay, altho the average territory from which it draws is 

 about seventy-five miles in radius. 



It is perhaps fortunate that Wausau and other plants have aiTanged 

 to handle hogs as the major part of the activities; for the problem of 

 handling hog meat is simplier than that of beef, and sale problems are 

 not so difficult. The Wausau plant makes a great specialty of sausage. 

 It has sold as high as 50,000 pounds in a month. It manufactures over 

 thirty varieties. It maintains a city sales system, a department that 

 handles small 100-pound express shipments, and a sales staff for larger 

 quantities. It has shipped as far as Winnipeg, Canada, and Dallas, Texas, 

 but the greater part of its shipments are to Wisconsin points. Up to the 

 present time, this plant has not undertaken to undersell any of the larger 

 packers. In fact, to do so would be suicidal. They do say that Swift is 

 selling under them at all points, but that the other packers are not. 



I should say that if any packing plant under co-operative management 

 could succeed, this one at Wausau will. But, like all new ventures, it still 

 remains to be seen what will develop there. 



Now, as to other co-operative packing plant activities. At New 

 Richmond they began building on a $250,000' capitalization, but after in- 

 vestigating the Wausau plant, raised their capital stock to $350,000. At 

 Madison, the farmers incorporated for $500,000, and later raised to 

 $750,000. Both at New Richmond and Madison, the plants will be op- 

 erating in time to catch the next crop of hogs. A plant of larger size 

 than at New Richmond has opened at Faribault, Minnesota. At St. 

 Paul, sale is on for a plant of $".00,000 or perhaps it is $1,000,000—1 am 

 not sure. Last week, a great farmers' organization met at Fargo, North 

 Dakota, composed largely of Equity members, and endorsed a stock sale to 

 commence on a $1,000,000 plant. Another co-operative packing company 

 has just opened at Rockford, Illinois. They bought an old plant there, 

 and the same man who officiated as first president at La Crosse, namely R. 

 M. J. Cryst, is also 'president of the Rockford plant and the St. Paul 

 organization. Cryst was also president at one time of what was known as 

 the Equity Securities Company, a promotion organization to sell stock in 

 enterprises for which Cryst and others secured the moral endorsement of 

 the Equity. 



