STATUS AND TENDENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 455 



changes includes 21 local associations, chiefly fruit.^ 

 It was believed that there were about 100 live-stock 

 shipping associations and cooperative elevators in 

 the State.- 



The  "Directory of American Agricultural Or- 

 ganizations," published by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in 1920, lists some forty-nine 

 associations and societies among farmers, designed 

 to promote their economic or social interests; but 

 the list is far from complete, since there arc known 

 to be a large number of cooperative associations, of 

 a very local range, not included in this directory. 

 As a business man, the Yankee farmer, who is still 

 an element of great importance in Michigan agri- 

 culture, especially in the southern peninsula, does 

 not take kindly to cooperation, and it is apparently 

 chiefly among the more alien elements that coopera- 

 tion flourishes best. Habits of cooperation acquired 

 in the old country persist on American soil. Thus, 

 in Finland, in 1920, there were reported 023 coop- 

 erative associations, which is indicative of a well- 

 developed practice of cooperation among persons of 

 Finnish nationality. Recalling that the Finnish 

 population of the Upper Peninsula is large, in rural 

 as well as urban areas, it follows that cooperative 

 business arrangements among them are not infre- 

 quently encountered. There were, in 1920, thirty- 

 eight cooperative stores listed in the Upper Penin- 



"■ Monthly Crop Reporter, April. 1921, 40, 41. 

 ' From a detailed Hat prepared l)y Hale Tenant, Ajjent 

 in Marketing, Michigan Agricultural College, May 9, 1921. 



