1368 AGRICUI/rrRAr, products, PRHSERVIXG, TACKIXC, TRAXSPORT. TRADl-; 



AGRICULTDRAL 

 PRODUCTS : 

 PRESERVIXG, 



PACKING, 



TRANSPORT, 



TRADE 



catalase was diniinished during the first 6 days when kept in an ice sate, after 

 which the amount remained stationary. 



All the eggs, with the exception of those in process of putrefaction, 

 were free from bacteria. 



1026 - Farmer's Elevators in Minnesota, United States of America. --^\■EI,D i,. d. ii., 



ill TIic ['}iit'i'is/ly of Minnesota, A-^ricuUural Experimcn! Station, Bulletin 152, pp. 1-24. 

 Uni\'crsity Farm, ,St. Paul, August 1915. 



The movement which led to the establishment of farmer's elevators 

 seems to have had its inception about 1S90 in the State of Minnesota. J3e- 

 fore that time, the grain trade (bulking, storage and forwarding) was in the 

 hands of companies owning elevators along the railway lines (line elev-ator 

 companies), having their principal office in towns such as Minneapolis and 

 Chicago. At the outset, although these companies rendered great service 

 to the grain trade, they showed themselves at times to be hard bargain 

 drivers in their contracts withthegrowersfrom whom they bought the grain 

 direct ; they also forced prices up and down according to their interests. 

 Although these practices were perhaps not so current as is generally sup- 

 posed, farmers, having got wind of them, became distrustful of the state of 

 tilings. They therefore combined to erect co-operative elevators, the nmii- 

 ber of which rapidh' increased, to the detriment of the elevators belonging 

 to non-agricultural Societies or Companies. In 1906 there were i 199 Com- 

 pany ele\ ators in Minnesota as against 151 farmer's elevators. In 1912, 

 according to the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, these figures changed 

 to 777 and 300 respectively. This Commission regarded as elevators be- 

 longing to farmers those which styled themselves farmer's elevators, though 

 in reality many pass under that name without really belonging to farmers. 



On the ist January 1914, an enquiry was opened by virtue of a law 

 passed in 1913 by the legislative body of Minnesota, authorising the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota to collect annual reports on the cooperative movement. 

 According to this enquiry, at the ist January 1914 there were 270, and at 

 the 1st January 1915, 278 elevators in respect of which farmers held more 

 than 50 % of the shares. Tlie total business turnover done b^'the 270 agri- 

 cultural societies existing in 1914 and owning elevators may be estimated 

 at $30 000 000 ; these societies sell about 30 % of the whole of the grain sold 

 by the farmers of Minnesota. 



The enquiry laid down the bases on which an elevator may be con- 

 sidered as " co-operative ". The three essential points in co-operation are : 

 the principle of the individual vote in resolutions (instead of the system of 

 voting by which each member has a number of votes proportional to the 

 shares he holds), limitation of the number of shares which may be held by 

 one member, and distribution of ])rofits rateably to the bu-siness transacted 

 by the Society with each member. About one third of the Societies limit 

 the interest paid on shares and distribute the profit balance in proportion 

 to the business done by each partner. The interest paid on the shares 

 ranges from 5 to 10 '',,. In other words, the rateable distribution of profit 

 has not been that most commonly adopted, and wliere it has been adopted, 

 the society generally pays a higher rate on shares than the current interest. 



