TWELVE YEARS OF SUPERIOR SERVICE 

 Leit: Clarence Austin, the tirst Farm Bureau oil salesman in Illinois, delivers iuel 

 on the farm of A. R. Wright, Marshall county. Ben Modro, the farm operator, looks on. 

 Above: The two tanks nearest the warehouse comprised the first bulk plant of tha 

 Marshall-Putnam Oil Company. Increased volume required the addition of two more 

 tanks and two complete bulk plants. 



Successful Cooperation 



W^ i ^« Stottf o^ tke MatikaU-J^utnam Oil ffompanu 



By LARRY POTTER 



F. E. FULLER 

 "Corn sugar sweetened our 

 oil meetings." 



l/^^N A hright May morning in 

 JT / iyJ6. two anxious men chattered 



V / out of Varna, Marshall county. 



in a Model T tank truck painted an eye- 

 straining canary yellow. Their goal was 

 to sell 300 gallons of fuels to farmers 

 that day. 



Gratified and surprised, they were back 

 in town before noon for another supply 

 ot gasoline and kercsene. Thus, I 2 years 

 ago this month, the farmer-owned, co- 

 operative Marshall-Putnam Oil Company 

 launched operations. 



Soon other groups of farmers were fol- 

 Io\^ing the course charted by this first II- 

 linbis oil co-op. Now there are 64 in 

 the state, all patterned after the first ven- 

 ture in Nfarshall and Putnam counties. 

 In addition there is a state-wide purchas- 

 ing organization, Illinois Farm Supply 

 ( ompany, to pool the buying power of 

 nearly 100,000 farmers. 



But there was more behind the MP 



Oil Company than a couple of gaudy yel- 

 low trucks darting and bumping over 

 rutted roads to bring fuel to keep farm- 

 ers' tractors working. There was a need. 

 There were men who knew that some- 

 thing must be done. There were men 

 who dared to venture into new fields. 

 Men with vision to lead the way, to 

 pioneer. 



In 1924, farmers needed money. The 

 post-war deflation had forced prices and 

 land values to new low levels. Farm 

 folks cLit expenses. 



Unschooled and inexperienced in buy- 

 ing oil, tractor owners bought lubricants 

 largely on a price basis. In fact, oil 

 manufacturers didn't know lubrication re- 

 quirements of tractors and farm machin- 

 ery. There were no standard grades of 

 motor oils or grea.ses. They were called, 

 simply, light, medium, heavy or extra 

 heavy. 



Oil salesmen swarmed over the coun- 

 try. They offered nondescript wares of 

 doubtful value. To be sure, they had 

 samples but the buyer had no assurance 

 that he would get products like the sam- 

 ples. And since there were no yard- 

 sticks with which to measure quality, 

 prices varied widely. Many farmers 

 bought on a price basis and their ma- 

 chines wore out before they should. 



About that time, too, many thought 

 the Farm Bureau inadequate to cope with 

 new problems. 'VC'hen the cry "Food 

 Will Win the War! " was the motto for 

 wheat and corn growers. County Farm 

 Bureau's led the way to greater produc- 

 tion. 



But in 1 924 there was need for cur- 

 tailment of production. To pay $n a 

 year for dues in an organization that 

 seemed incapable of coping with the 

 farm problem was ridiculous. 



Farm Adviser F. E. Fuller of the Mar- 

 shall-Putnam Farm Bureau saw the trend. 

 Something had to be done. He took his 

 problem to Farm Bureau Director A. R. 

 Wright at Varna. 



Wright expressed the view that the 

 Farm Bureau must do something to give 

 members tangible returns in addition to 

 its educational program. He knew that 

 shipping associations retained the inter- 

 est of livestock men through returning 

 savings. Wright and Fuller recalled the 

 enthusiasm with which George R. Wick- 

 er, a Minnesotan and manager of the Il- 

 linois Agricultural Auditing Association, 

 had described activities of farming pur- 

 chasing cooperatives in his native state. 

 Perhaps what the Farm Bureau needed 

 was a co-op of this type to help solve its 

 problems. 'Ves, that was it! An organ- 



8 



I. A. A. RECORD 



