THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN 1 5 



The existing societies are varioush' and somewhat loosely organized, 

 and there is no strict definition of what constitutes a co-operative society. 

 Many of them are vaguely described as managed " on co-operative lines ", 

 and it is evident that the lines are not very strictly drawn. And their 

 management, purely as business enterprises, must be considered in relat- 

 ion to the fact that they are, or purport to be, co-operative undertakings. 



From an enqtiiry made by the State Board of Public AfPairs and cover- 

 ing 169 co-operative creameries it appears that in nearly half of the societies 

 the voting is by shares. Fev*- of the societies make any attempt to increase 

 their working capital by adding to it out of the profits earned, and only a 

 very small proportion of them pro\dde for depreciation. 



In the actual working of the creameries, while most of the societies 

 aim at securing a high standard of freshness and purity in the milk suppUed, 

 less than half of them use the butter- fat test. Apparently no steps are 

 taken by creamery^ societies to built up uniform herds of any particular 

 dairy breed. Only 7 per cent, of the societies reported that they had taken 

 com.bined action with other societies to secure higher prices and lower 

 freight rates. Conditions are almost precisely similar in co-operative cheese 

 factories. There is. among them, the same failure to strengthen their 

 financial position by saving out of the profits of each year, and in the work- 

 ing, there is the same neglect of the butter-fat test. 



The co-operative creameries have to meet the keen competition of pri- 

 vate companies owning central creameries which are supplied ^vith cream 

 from a large number of skimming stations scattered over a wide territory. 

 The skimming stations may be from five hundred to seven hundred and 

 fifty miles from the factory, which is able, therefore, to draw supplies from 

 three or four States. The cream is usuallj^ shipped in refrigerator cars. 

 The farmers deliver the milk and receive payment at the skimming .stations 

 and have, as a rule, no further interest in the business. The creamery com- 

 panies employ highly- skilled butter makers and experienced business 

 managers, and with an average annual output for the largest creameries of 

 from fifteen to twenty thousand tons of butter, are able to build up a well 

 organized marketing system. They are at a disadvantage compared with 

 the farmers' co-operative creamery as to the quahty of the cream with 

 which they have to deal, as this reaches the <^entral factory in a very mixed 

 condition and it is difficult tmder these circumstances to produce a uniform 

 grade of butter. 



With reference to the farmers' co-operative creameries in the Xorth 

 Central States generally, Mr Harold G. Powell says : " The most serious 

 weakness in the co-operative creamery movement is the fact that each 

 creamery usually acts as a unit in the manufacture of butter, in the 

 purchase of supplies, in the development of markets and in the distri- 

 bution and sale of its products. The co-operative creameries, like 

 the North Western apple-grower's associations, need to create a number 

 of central co-operative agencies, one, for example for each State or other 

 large geographical di\nsion. to act for them at cost in purchasing supplies 



