14 UNITED STATES - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



The work of the State College of Agriculture is a factor of considerable 

 importance in the progress of agricultural co-operation and niral organiz- 

 ation in general. The College, through its Extension Division, is studj-ing 

 problems of marketing, and, at the suggestion of the State Board of Public 

 Affairs, has estabhshed a professorship of agricultural co-operation and 

 marketing. 



The State Dairymen's Association, a semi-public organization partly 

 supported by State funds, takes an active part in promoting co-operation 

 by organizing and managing cow-testing associations. At the present time 

 the Association is testing about five thousand cows for quahty and quantity 

 of milk produced, a w^ork of immense importance to the agricultural pros- 

 perity of the State, which depends to a very large extent on its production 

 of butter and cheese. 



The State Board of Public Affairs is doing valuable work in carrying out 

 investigations in connection with co-operative marketing, rural credit and 

 allied questions. Though only recently established it has already published 

 the results of more than one important enquiry. 



(B). Co-opeyative Societies and Associations. 



Until 1911 no special legislation affecting co-operative societies existed 

 in Wisconsin, and a very large number of the existing societies, therefore, 

 are either registered as ordinary companies with shares or are unregistered 

 and have no definite legal status. The absence of special legislation does 

 not appear to have proved a serious handicap to the success of any well- 

 directed co-operative enterprise, but the passing of a special Act in 1911 

 enables the societies to escape from their somewhat doubtful legal pos- 

 ition, and will lead to the better organization of the co-operative 

 movement. 



The branch of agricultural co-operation most characteristic of Wiscon- 

 sin and the North Central States generally is the co-operative creamery or 

 cheese factory, and it will be convenient, therefore to refer to this form of 

 co-operative enterprise first. 



I. — Creameries and Cheese Factories. 



In 1909, according to the figures of the State Board of PubUc Affairs, 

 the year's production of milk, butter and cheese in Wisconsin was valued at 

 79 million dollars, so that the question of co-operation in the dairy industry 

 is of outstanding importance. The official returns for 1911 give the number 

 of co-operative creameries in the State as 947 out of a total for all cream- 

 eries of 1,000, and the number of co-operative cheese factories as 244 out 

 of 1,784. According to these figures about one-fifth of the existing machi- 

 nery for centralized production is co-operatively owned. 



