AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



were peculiar to Minnesota and the industry were not anticipated. The 

 fact that there were three separate potato-raising districts in Minnesota, 

 each with distinctly different marketing problems was either ignored or 

 completely overlooked. Returns from the sale of potatoes grown in the 

 eastern part of the state were used to buy warehouses and to pay for 

 storage of potatoes in the other districts. This made the eastern growers 

 unhappy. Their potatoes came on the market first and they wanted pay- 

 ment as soon as they were sold. 



More trouble was created for the exchange because of the attempt that 

 had been made to finance the organization out of the first year's crop. The 

 promotional expenses exceeded $80,000. This increased the general dissatis- 

 faction. Faulty accounting methods and a bumper crop in 1924 added 

 to the woes of the exchange. Finally in 1925 the board of directors decided 

 to release the growers from their contracts and the exchange ceased to 

 function. 60 



More successful were the efforts of the cigar-leaf producers in the 

 neighboring state of Wisconsin. Here, too, it was low prices that forced 

 the growers to organize the Northern Wisconsin Cooperative Tobacco 

 Pool. Once the organization was incorporated in the spring of 1922, it 

 launched a campaign to control a minimum of 75 per cent of the total 

 crop based on the 1920 acreage. About 7,200 growers signed pledges. The 

 contract was a purchase-and-sale agreement noncancellable prior to June 

 i, 1927, after which it was to run from year to year terminable on June i 

 of any year on thirty days' notice. Available figures indicate that during 

 1922-23 more than 67 per cent of the state's total production was delivered 

 to the pool; during 1923-24 better than 64 per cent was delivered; and 

 during 1925-26 more than 58 per cent. 



An attempt was made by some of the dissatisfied growers to end the 

 pool, but early in the spring of 1927 the decision was made to continue it. 

 About 20,000,000 pounds of tobacco was pledged to the pool under the 

 new contract. Good management and wise policies made possible the 

 handling, processing, and selling of the tobacco at satisfactory prices. 

 Perhaps the type of farmers that the pool appealed to and their economic 



60. H. B. Price, "Farmers' Cooperation in Minnesota, 1917-1922," University of 

 Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 202 (St. Paul, 1923), pp. 35-40; 

 Senate Document 95, 70 Congress, i session, pp. 303-5. 



