Cooperation 181 



of cracked eggs. The average price for the eggs was 12.86 

 cents per pound, amounting to $1,233,115.03. The aver- 

 age price paid to the patrons, including the surplus, was 

 12.02 cents per pound. 



At the annual meeting of the association in 1910 the 

 payment of the initial membership fee of 14 cents was 

 abolished because the reserve fund at that time amounted 

 to $81,000. 



The Agricultural Department of Canada has been active 

 in studying the cooperative marketing of eggs. Professor 

 F. C. Elford said in a public address in 1910 : "The work 

 of the association (the Poultry Producers' Association of 

 Eastern Canada) is to get the producers to form cooperative 

 collective circles such as they have in Denmark and other 

 European countries. At these circles one man would 

 receive, grade, and market the produce for the community, 

 and all such circles would have a uniform system. Both the 

 Dominion government and the Quebec government have 

 taken up the matter and are doing what they can to for- 

 ward the cooperative work." 



In Australia one state has twenty-one egg circles con- 

 sisting principally of small farmers. The Secretary of 

 each center receives, tests, and grades the eggs, pays cash 

 for them at the current market rate, and sends them to the 

 government cold stores. The government does the mar- 

 keting and at the end of each quarter any profits are di- 

 vided among the suppliers. The Secretary of each center 

 receives one cent per dozen for the eggs he handles. Under 

 this method there is no middleman's profit. 1 



1 N. Y. Produce Review and American Creamery, v. 29, No. 12, Janu- 

 ary 12, 1910. 



