278 RURAL MICHIGAN 



live-stock shipped, with additional allowances for 

 special services, such as furnishing bedding, chang- 

 ing partitions in cars, and the like. A protection 

 fund to cover losses to stock is provided, and members 

 are mulcted for the non-performance of shipping 

 ao-reements. The manager of each local association 

 is in active charge of all shipments, receives pay- 

 ments for stock shipped, and keeps the accounts; 

 while the Michigan Livestock Exchange is the central 

 agency for effecting cooperation among the locals. 



In addition to the farm products sold within the 

 State, there is a large export business. The United 

 States Bureau of Markets reports the shipment of 

 farm products to points outside Michigan, in 1920, 

 as follows: Apples, 5,493 carloads; beans, 1,500; 

 cabbage, 298; cantaloupes, 144; celery, 549; cherries, 

 382; cucumbers, l(j; grapes, 4,480; lettuce, 110; 

 mixed deciduous fruits, 15; mixed bunched vege- 

 tables, 6; onions, 531; peaches, 2,160; pears, 1,109; 

 plums and prunes, 187; potatoes, 9,025; strawberries, 

 439; tomatoes, 28; watermelons, 58; carrots, 8; 

 cauliflower, 2. 



With the purpose of establishing for agriculture 

 in Michigan the sort of organization that had ob- 

 tained results for other branches of industry and 

 for labor, the Michigan State Farm Bureau was 

 brought into existence in the autumn of 1919. Its 

 growth was much more rapid than its promoters 

 anticipated, a development enhanced by the economic 

 difficulties in which farmers found themselves in the 

 industrial slackness that ensued after the stimulating 



