Successful 



Cooperation 



.^-u^::!:^ y- 



How the Ursa Farmers Cooperative 



Co. Helped Adams County Farmers 



Win Tlieir Figlit For Fair Prices 



By LARRY POTTER 



ADAMS COUNTYS CHIEF GRAIN MABT 

 The annex will speed unloading, make 

 the co-op more serriceable. 



'ARLY in May, Adams county 

 farmers marked the end of an 

 18-year old fight for fair grain 

 prices by breaking ground for a 15,- 

 000-bushel annex to the elevator owned 

 and operated by the Ursa Farmers Co- 

 operative Company. The event opened 

 a new era in marketing, furnished a 

 fitting close to the horse and buggy 

 period. 



In June, the company stepped square- 

 ly into the new marketing era, pur- 

 chased stock in Illinois Grain Corpora- 

 tion and laid plans to sell grain cooper- 

 atively through the state-wide organiza- 

 tion. Thus, in less than 60 days the Ursa 

 co-op cleared the way, in two important 

 steps, for more efficient grain market- 

 ing in Adams county. 



"Trade goes to the elevator equipped 

 to handle it. Our old plant was all 

 right for horses and wagons but too 

 much time is required to unload the 

 big trucks that haul ear-corn in from 

 twenty-five miles and farther," said 

 Willis Seward, president. 



Thus, following a battle that in- 

 volved thousands of dollars, careful 

 strategy and shrewd management, co- 

 operative grain marketing in Adams 

 county moved into the streamlined class 

 of 1938. 



The new structure will provide extra 

 storage space, a new conveyor, a 10- 

 bushel weigher and recleaner for 

 shelled corn and special truck-type 

 dumps to quickly handle the increas- 

 ing volume. The added space will be 



rented to soybean processors who buy 

 more beans than they can use when 

 prices are low. 



As the annual volume of grain han- 

 dled by the cooperative climbs toward a 

 half-million bushels, two veterans of 

 the fair price scrap, Willis Seward and 

 Henry Barnes, took time recently to 

 review the steps their co-op has taken. 



"We knew less about running an 

 elevator than the average farmer does 

 today," Secretary Barnes, Ursa banker, 

 recalled. "There was a need for a co- 

 operative elevator, we felt, because 

 grain buyers around the county seemed 

 to be taking more than a fair share of 

 margin. If they had been taking a 

 reasonable charge for handling grain, 

 we couldn't have organized." 



Foundation for the cooperative was 

 laid in a series of meetings sponsored 

 by the Adams County Farm Bureau 

 under the guidance of Farm Adviser 

 Frank Gougler. The Ursa Farmers 

 Cooperative Company was finally or- 

 ganized. May 26, 1920, with LeRoy 

 Grieser, president, John E. Frazier, vice- 

 president, L. Frank Alison, secretary, 

 A. B. Leeper, treasurer and William H. 

 Striver, director. 



To these men fell the task of selling 

 stock and building an elevator. They 

 received legal aid and organization ad- 

 vice from the lAA. 



During the summer they sold 322 

 shares of the 500 authorized. Par 

 value of the stock was |100. To assure 



stockholders that their company would 

 always be a cooperative, holdings were 

 limited to five shares per person. 



A sturdy, 25,000-bushel, tile elevator 

 was built. Although it was the finest 

 structure of its kind in western Illinois, 

 with spring rains the sheller pit filled 

 with water. But that was a trifle com- 

 pared to the events that were to follow 

 in the fight for fair grain prices. 



Disgruntled stockholders elected a 

 new board on May 2, 1921. They 

 drained the sheller pit and took steps to 



MANAGER A. M. "DAD" WOODHOTF 

 For six years he has presided over 

 weiqhts ond tests. 



L A. A. RECORD 



