STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Ol 



cooperative elevator was not formed until the old line com- 

 panies, aided by the railroads, had driven the prices of grain to 

 such a point that farmers were receiving prices fixed and con- 

 trolled by a set of interests which were driving the producers 

 of grain out of business. It was out of desperation that the 

 cooperative movement was started, which has grown until now 

 we have over 2,500 farmers and cooperative elevators in this 

 country. 



NECESSITY. 



The producers of perishables that are grown a great distance 

 from consuming markets were driven to cooperation by neces- 

 sity. The fverishable nature of their products and the heavy 

 transportation expense have compelled them to organize and 

 stay organized in order to distribute and market their products 

 in competition with points nearer the consuming centers. Such 

 a condition as this accounts for the highly efficient organizations 

 found in the Pacific northwest and California. 



A study of cooperation in this country brings us to the con- 

 clusion that cooperation as applied to the distribution and mar- 

 keting of farm products is not successful, as a rule, unless it is 

 founded upon dire necessity. So long as farmers do fairly 

 well in their own way they are not inclined to cooperate. 



That section which makes a specialty of some one phase of 

 agriculture offers the most promising field for cooperation as 

 it gives the association the advantage of a large amount of one 

 product, such as cooperative elevators for handling grain, live- 

 stock shipping associations, meat packing houses, cooperative 

 creameries and cheese factories, egg circles, cotton gins, cotton 

 warehouses, fruit and produce associations, and various others. 



One of the most difficult problems in marketing is to build up 

 the trade in a little of about everything that is raised on the 

 general farm and maturing in small quantities at different times. 

 Cooperation therefore is more successful when adapted to the 

 marketing of highly specialized and localized crops. 



INCORPORATION. 



In organizing an association the basic principles as enumerated 

 above should be embodied and the association should be incor- 

 porated under the laws of the state in which it will operate. 

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