FARMERS CO-OPERATIVE ELEVATORS IN' MI.VNESOTA 



tive in their methods of doing business. A good many of them are control- 

 led by stockholders who desire as high returns as possible on their invest- 

 ment, and a good many do not limit dividends. 



In the case of 169 elevators reporting on this ]:)oint the average profit 

 was 2.7 per cent : it varied from 1.9 per cent, for the nine having gross re- 

 ceipts between $ 175,000 and S 200,000 to 3.5 per cent, for the seven having 

 gross receipts between $ 225,000 and S 250,000. It may perhaps be con- 

 cluded on the whole that the smaller elevators tend to require a somewhat 

 greater proportion of profit than the larger. This ma}^ be due to the fact 

 that elevators doing a small volume of business reqiiire relatively more 

 investment per unit of business than those doing more, and in order to 

 obtain an equal rate of return must collect a larger rate of profit on business 

 handled. 



The methods of distributing profits in the form of dividends vary very 

 much. Where sufficient profit is made to declaie any dividend a stock di- 

 vidend is almost invariably paid. Of the 296 elevators we are considering 

 72 made no statement as to their disposition of profits, 36 reported that they 

 paid no dividend of any kind, iii that they paid dividends on stock only, 

 and yy that they distributed their profits among those delivering grain. Of 

 these 77 all but one paid a stock dividend before any distribution was made 

 on business done. 



Table IV shows the rates of dividends on stock paid by the 147 ele- 

 vators which reported and which did not pay dividends to those deliver- 

 ing grain. 



Table IV. — Dividend Rates on Cat>itid Stock. 



Rate % 







I . . . . . 



5 



6 



7 



8 



8 V3 • • • • 



10 



12 



15 



16 



