PURCHASE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FEED 71 



form the usual plan is to distribute profits on the basis of patronage. 

 Farmers have organized co-operative corporations to buy and 

 distribute feed quite generally during the past few years and with 

 a few exceptions — probably no more than would occur in connec- 

 tion with the organization and operation of a like number of 

 business corporations — these companies have been successful. 



To begin with, the character of the corporation is such that it 

 is always operated in the interest of its members. Service rather 

 than money-making is the primary aim of the corporation itself. 

 This means that it is used to get feed marketed as cheaply as 

 possible, instead of trying to see how much can be made off the 

 various marketing operations. Again, since the men who own it 

 are the men who use the feed, greater attention is given to quality 

 and to making available those feeds which it is to their best interest 

 to use. 



118. Service costs. — Despite these marked advantages in 

 favor of co-operative buying, members of co-operative corporations 

 everywhere should remember that marketing operations cost 

 money, whether performed by their own co-operative, an ordinary 

 business corporation, or a private individual; and that the lack of 

 good business management, sufficient working capital, or the 

 necessary volume of business may so handicap the co-operative 

 that it becomes the most expensive method of buying and dis- 

 tributing feed. 



119. Examples of successful co-operative corporations. — 

 Successful co-operative feed-buying corporations operating over 

 large territories are the Eastern States Farmers Exchange, with 

 headquarters at Springfield, Mass.; the Michigan Farm Bureau 

 at Lansing, Mich.; the Pennsylvania Farmers' Co-operative Feder- 

 ation at Philadelphia, Pa.; the Co-operative Grange League Fed- 

 eration Exchange, Inc., with headquarters at Ithaca, New York. 

 Operating locally are hundreds of smaller concerns; in fact, in 

 New York State alone there are reported to be around seventy- 

 five local co-operatives owning and operating warehouses. Two 

 co-operatives, the G.L.F. Exchange, as it is popularly known, and 

 the Adirondack Farmers Company, will be described in some detail. 



