i86 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



facturing equipment a trend also 

 noted in other marketing cooperatives 

 that have established themselves. 



FEW ATTEMPTS have been made to 

 organize cooperative associations that 

 would provide the members with proc- 

 essing facilities as well as with techni- 

 cal forestry service and assistance in 

 marketing. Such, however, are the 

 services offered by the largest and old- 

 est forest cooperative. 



Processing cooperatives have several 

 advantages. The ownership of a plant 

 and equipment provides a focal point 

 of interest. Manufacturing profits that 

 usually go to an independent processor 

 are retained by the association. Scaling 

 and grading practices, designed to give 

 members a fair return for products, 

 can be easily adopted. The volume of 

 business makes the use of modern 

 equipment possible with the result 

 that high-quality products can be man- 

 ufactured efficiently. Members find it 

 possible to buy materials they need for 

 their own use readily and at savings. 

 Raw products can be exchanged for 

 needed materials and the development 

 of markets for all sizes and qualities of 

 material results in better forest use. 



Processing cooperatives are faced 

 with more problems of financing and 

 management than are the simpler 

 forms of associations. Considerable 

 capital must be raised to get started. 

 This usually means borrowing money 

 and meeting payments of interest and 

 principal. Management is more com- 

 plicated; besides the technical prob- 

 lems of running a cooperative, there 

 are also the problems of forest man- 

 agement, business operation, process- 

 ing, and selling. 



The Otsego Forest Products Coop- 

 erative Association, Inc., of Coopers- 

 town, N. Y., is an example of a forest 

 cooperative that offers its members 

 services ranging from forest manage- 

 ment through the marketing of fin- 

 ished products. Organized in 1935, the 

 cooperative was assisted through loans 

 from the Federal Government for the 

 construction of a modern sawmill com- 



plete with dry kilns, planer, resaw, and 

 other equipment. It has nearly 1,000 

 members, mostly farmers, who own 

 31,000 acres of woodland, which bears 

 50 million board feet of timber. 



The Otsego association manufac- 

 tures and markets more than 2 million 

 feet of lumber a year. Cutting is on a 

 sustained-yield basis. A substantial part 

 of the production, especially the soft- 

 wood products, goes back to members 

 for use on their farms. 



The adoption of forest management, 

 scientific log scaling and grading, mod- 

 ern processing, and efficient marketing 

 characterizes the association. Through 

 these services it is offering the essen- 

 tials of a sound forestry business not 

 previously available in the Coopers- 

 town area. 



SPECIAL-PURPOSE cooperatives have 

 been useful on occasions when large 

 numbers of producers, acting as in- 

 dividuals, have found themselves at a 

 disadvantage. 



An illustration was the situation 

 created by the hurricane in New Eng- 

 land in 1938. Hundreds of woodland 

 owners suddenly found they would 

 have to dispose of timber that they had 

 not intended to sell for some time. A 

 special-purpose cooperative organized 

 in central Massachusetts, the Peter- 

 sham Forest Products Cooperative, did 

 a good job of disposing of windthrown 

 timber for its members in an orderly 

 and financially satisfactory way. 



Another type of cooperative is one 

 organized to market special products. 

 There are at least two that deal in 

 maple-sugar products and one that 

 handles naval stores. 



During the war, the demand for spe- 

 cial products, such as black walnut for 

 gunstocks, brought about the forma- 

 tion of small local pools in the Central 

 States. They helped manufacturers lo- 

 cate critically needed stumpage and 

 logs and helped members get substan- 

 tially better prices for their trees than 

 they could get as individuals. 



Local circumstances dictate the or- 

 ganization of special-purpose coopera- 



