Cooperation 129 



associations through the refund of one cent a bushel. This 

 rule, however, is not always legally enforceable, though the 

 refund in most cases is paid voluntarily by the member 

 who sells his grain outside of the association. 



The affairs of the association are supervised by a small 

 board of directors. An expert grain buyer is selected 

 as manager at a salary of $125 to $150 per month or is 

 paid on a profit-sharing basis. Sometimes the association 

 is managed by one of the farmers interested in its forma- 

 tion. The association pays a fair market price for the gram, 

 which is then assembled in the association elevators. 

 Where competition is keen, the association pays the termi- 

 nal market price less the freight and assesses the cost of 

 operation against the members in proportion to the amount 

 of grain contributed. This forces the competing elevators 

 to handle their business without profit. From these 

 elevators, the grain is loaded into cars and is shipped to 

 the interior mills or to the primary grain markets, where 

 the final grades are made and where agents of the asso- 

 ciation sell it to the terminal elevators, or ship it to the 

 mills hi the United States, to distributing warehouses 

 in the large cities, or to the seaboard for export, though 

 sometimes the grain is shipped direct from the farmers' 

 elevators to the mills. Under the farmers' elevator plan, 

 the grain grower is paid the market price for his grain, 

 and at the end of the season, if there is a profit from 

 the sale of the grain, receives a dividend on his stock, or 

 the profit may be prorated on the basis of the volume 

 of business transacted by each member. It is the usual 

 custom of these companies to retain a surplus varying 

 from $2000 to $5000 in order to be in a strong position 



