TRANSPORTATIOX AND MARKETIXG 279 



effect of the great war had spent its momentum. At 

 first the offices were at Birmingham, near Detroit; 

 but the large increase in the niembersliip and acdvi- 

 ties caused the Bureau to be removed to Lansing, 

 and a branch office was (1921) established in the 

 Upper Peninsula at Escanaba. 



At its inception the work of the farm bureau, ac- 

 cording to its secretary, was threefold in purpose : 

 educational, commercial and legislative. Obviously 

 the commercial element was of chief concern; but 

 the agent of the organization, who carried on a vigor- 

 ous membership campaign throughout the State, 

 presented forcibly the new idea of state-wide coop- 

 eration, thus seeking to break down the characteris- 

 tic individualism of the farmers; and when the 

 legislature of 1919 convened, the farm bureau had 

 its program of legislation to lay before the law- 

 makers. 



The constitution of the State Farm Bureau defi- 

 nitely set forth the aim of the organization. "The 

 purpose of this association," ran the first section, 

 "shall be to encourage, correlate and promote the 

 efforts of the county farm bureaus of Michigan 

 affiliated with it, and their individual members, and 

 to cooperate with other agricultural organizations in 

 advancement and improvement of agricultural in- 

 terests in Michigan and the nation, educationally, 

 legislatively and economically, l)y doing primarily 

 and princijially for nicinhcrs and not for pecuniary 

 profit, the following, namely: buying and selling mer- 

 chandise, farm machinery, fertilizer, stock feeds, 



