IN SASKATCHEWAN 229 



Office, or wholesale body, through which all the Locals 

 can act collectively in dealing with miners, millers, 

 manufacturers, etc. The Central sells to organized 

 Locals only, they in turn selling to their members. The 

 surplus earnings of the Central are distributed to the 

 Locals which have invested capital in their Central, 

 such distribution being made in proportion to the 

 amount of business done with the Central by the 

 respective Locals. 



During its first season of co-operative purchasing the 

 Association handled 25,000 tons of coal and in a year 

 or two there was turned over in a season enough binder 

 twine to bind fifty million bushels of grain about 

 4,500,000 pounds of twine. When the Western potato 

 crop failed in 1915 the Association imported one 

 hundred thousand bushels of potatoes for its members, 

 cutting the market price in some cases a dollar per 

 bushel. Flour, apples, cord-wood, building supplies, 

 vegetables and groceries likewise were purchased and 

 distributed co-operatively. The savings effected by the 

 farmers cannot be tallied alone from actual quantities 

 of goods thus purchased through their own organiza- 

 tion but must include a large aggregate saving due to 

 reduction of prices by outside dealers. 



Such commodities as coal and flour being best dis- 

 tributed through local warehouses, it is likely that 

 eventually the Saskatchewan Co-Operative Elevator 

 Company will take a hand in helping the Association 

 and the Locals with the handling of co-operative 

 supplies by furnishing the large capital investment 

 needed to establish these warehouses. 



The necessary financial strength to accomplish this 

 Is readily conceived to be available after a glance at 

 later developments in Saskatchewan. The co-operative 



