CO-OPERATIVE BUYING AND SELLING. Ill 



CO-OPERATIVE BUYING AND SELLING. 



If there existed the thorough neighborhood, county, 

 State, and National organization of Clubs and Granges that 

 I have advocated, co-operation in buying and selling would 

 be an easy matter. Until this is accomplished, these Asso 

 ciations must work from their own individual bases, or 

 through combination with such districts as may be enabled 

 to join together. 



The Treasurer of the Club may be the financial or purchas 

 ing agent, or some member of the Club may be appointed to 

 that office separately. Suppose the Club, containing twenty 

 to fifty members, intends to sell a certain amount of pro 

 duce, for the purchase of necessary stores. The families 

 represented in the Club require annually from fifty to one 

 hundred dollars worth of dry goods and groceries each, 

 according to size. The individual can not get as good a 

 price on two to three hundred bushels of corn, a hundred 

 bushels of wheat, a pair of steers, a half dozen fat hogs, or 

 fifteen to twenty barrels of apples, as he who has from 

 twenty to fifty times this quantity to dispose of at once. 



The fiscal agent of the Club becomes the custodian of the 

 property say, a car load of hogs, another of cattle, ten 

 cars of corn, half a dozen of wheat, and, perhaps, one or 

 two of fruit. Accounts are opened with the grain merchant, 

 the produce commission man, the cattle broker, etc., unless 

 the respective dealers in the village or town consider it to 

 their interest (which they soon come to do) to buy this 

 property, and give cash in return, or such articles as may be 

 wanted at fair prices. If not, the agent appointed makes the 

 best terms he can for transportation, and sells in the best mar 

 ket he can find, buys the stores, and distributes to the several 



