210 DEEP FURROWS 



vistas of emancipation, as the farmer saw it. And as 

 the furrows lengthened and multiplied they were 

 destined to cause much heart-burning and antagonism 

 in new directions. 



The timber limit which the Grain Growers' Grain 

 Company purchased was estimated to contain two 

 hundred and twenty-two million feet of lumber. A 

 Co-Operative Department was opened with the manu- 

 facture and sale of more than 130 carloads of flour at a 

 saving to the farmer of fifty cents per cwt., even this 

 small beginning registering a drop in milling company 

 prices. Next they got in touch with the Ontario 

 Fruit Growers' Association and sold over 4,000 bbls. of 

 apples to Western farmers at the Eastern growers' 

 carload-lot price, plus freight, plus a commission of ten 

 cents per -barrel. More than one hundred carloads of 

 coal were handled in one month and the farmers then 

 got after the lumber manufacturers for lumber by the 

 carload at a saving of several dollars per thousand feet. 



Still experimenting, the Grain Growers' Grain Com- 

 pany added to the list of commodities in 1912-13 fence 

 posts, woven fence wire, barbed wire and binder twine. 

 Followed other staples cement, plaster, sash and doors, 

 hardware and other builders' supplies; sheet metal 

 roofing and siding, shingles, curbing, culverts, portable 

 granaries, etc.; oil, salt and other miscellaneous sup- 

 plies; finally, in 1914-15, farm machinery of all kinds, 

 scales, cream separators, sewing machines and even type- 

 writers. Of binder twine alone nearly seven million 

 pounds was handled during this season. Thus did 

 co-operative purchasing .by the farmers pass from 

 experiment to a permanent place in their activities. 



Expansion was taking place in other directions also. 

 In 1912 the Company leased from the Canadian Pacific 



