i82 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



in a position in the meantime to make an advance in money 

 to the producer, should he require it — the local price of 

 grain has come to be raised by about 2s. a quarter. That 

 has occurred in Saxony. These granaries promise, after 

 the Government has sown its wild oats in their promotion, 

 with public money, five million marks of such (the loss of 

 which it may have seen reason to regret when milliards 

 were required for the various war loans) to become a 

 decidedly valuable asset to the country. And one of their dis- 

 tinct self-set tasks is to promote the cultivation of what is 

 in each particular district the most prized and marketable 

 species of grain. In America — alike Canada and the United 

 States — " elevators," as they are there called, have long 

 been a fully recognised institution.full of value to the 400,000 

 or so farmers who support them as stockholders in the 

 United States and probably 100,000 in Canada. In Canada 

 the three chief Grain Growers' Associations — in Manitoba, 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta — alone muster about 60,000 

 members strong. 



All this shows the great commercial value of Co-operation, 

 as meaning money in the farmer's pocket. It may be of 

 interest to note how American farmers were first led to 

 co-operate in their grain business, and how the movement, 

 approved by results, came to grow. 



The Elevator movement took its rise in the United States 

 late in the 'eighties, when, as Mr. H. W. Danforth, President 

 of the National Council of Farmers' Co-operative Agricul- 

 ture, has related, " the farmer first began to realise that he 

 was being robbed of his just profits through the exactions 

 of the Grain Trust, the Lumber Trust, the Coal Trust, and 

 other combinations with which he has to transact business." 



" For a century," so he adds, " the United States Government 

 had fostered, nursed, and granted special privileges to the manu- 

 facturing interests, with practically no concession to the agri- 

 cultural interests of the country. Accordingly, farmers came 

 to the conclusion that they must help themselves. Therefore, 

 in March, 1889, about a hundred farmers met at Rockwell, Iowa, 

 to discuss the question and decided to become their own grain 

 sellers. Very little experience sufficed to show the great advan- 

 tage which Co-operation would bring them. The newly formed 



