1 6 CANADA - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



We will now give details as to this enterprise in the Canadian provinces 

 in which it has beconae important 



§ 2. Data as to the grading and sale of wool in several Canadian 



provinces. 



Province of Alberta. — The Alberta Sheep Breeders' Association has 

 held three co-operative wool sales. Their inauguration and success were 

 made possible by the help given by the provincial government towards 

 organizing and maintaining the association, and by the action of the Domin- 

 ion Live Stock Commissioner's branch of the Dominion Department of 

 Agriculture in placing at the disposal of the association, without charge, 

 experts who graded the wool. The manner in which these services have 

 been rendered has established a confidence between the association and the 

 buyers which would have been diffictilt to secure without the official grad- 

 ing by the government officials. 



As regards profits some farmers who sold through the association re- 

 ceived in 1915 as much as 32 cents (i) for a poimd of wool, while their neigh- 

 bours sold wool of equal quahty privately for 18 cents a pound. 



The association charges no commission on sales, but assesses the mem- 

 bers for the cost according to the quantity each remits. The cost of hand- 

 ling the wool was in 1916 one cent a pound. This included the wages of the 

 staff while the wool was being sorted, weighed and loaded on cars, insurance, 

 printing, general ofiice expenses, and the cost of bags and twine. 



The association issues a tabulated statement showing the quantity' 

 of wool of each grade sold and the prices received by individuals. Members 

 can thus see how their wool compares with that of their neighbours ; and a 

 number of them become anxious to know how they can improve the qual- 

 ity' of their wool and so increase their profits. These tabulated state- 

 ments have moreover helped to establish wool values : individual buyers 

 who still travel from farm to farm are now compelled to offer much better 

 prices to farmers than they would have done before the inauguration of the 

 association's sales. 



The following figures show the improvement in the quahty of the wool 

 sold by the association from 1914 to 1915 : 



(i) I cent ^ about V2 ^ ^^ par. 



