SUMMARY ANNUAL REPORT 5 



the bargaining disadvantage as possible. Bear in mind that so long 

 as the farmer has no means of controlling the volume of his production 

 he will remain at a certain selling disadvantage. 



The first task in effective marketing is the production of what 

 the market wants, its preparation in just the form the market wants 

 it, and all this must be done at the lowest possible cost. It is dis- 

 tinctly a function of the state department of agriculture to assist by 

 establishing grades and encouraging growers' marketing organizations 

 to conform to them, and on inspection to place the state brand of 

 quality upon the product so that sales contracts may be safely and 

 intelligently made. The Montana department of agriculture made a 

 long step along that line during the year just closing in its establish- 

 ment of shipping point inspection of potatoes and and apples, co- 

 operatively administered with the United States department of agri- 

 culture. 



The state department of agriculture can perform valuable service 

 by bringing wide buying power to bear upon certain highly import- 

 ant but unorganized commodities. Some effective work has been done 

 during the current year along this line with potatoes, with the large 

 surplus turkey crop, and with the bean crop of the Yellowstone valley. 



Assist Co-operative Marketing: The state should lend every assist- 

 ance to make more effective the co-operative marketing organizations 

 of farmers which perform a double function in standardization of pro- 

 duction as far as their influence extends, and in carrying the farmer's 

 control over his product up to the final sale or to the manufacturer. 

 Regulation of. dealers' profits by direct farmer competition is sound 

 in principle and effective in practice where a proper business founda- 

 tion has been laid. The trouble in many instances where co-operative 

 ventures have been unsuccessful is that there has been no paid-up 

 capital stock to commence operation with. Farmer stock subscribers 

 gave their notes, and with these as a basis necessary funds were bor- 

 rowed from banks that were poorly fitted to extend that form of 

 credit, or from commission firms, so that in either case the operations 

 were decidedly hampered from the outset. The chance for any enter- 

 prise to succeed under such condition is slender, so it is nothing to 

 the discredit of the principle of co-operative marketing that with such 

 a handicap, there have been failures in the co-operative field. 



Montana is competing for the possession of her present farmer 

 residents, and for the attraction of new ones, with the agricultural 

 provinces to the north, as well as with other states of the Union. It is 

 interesting to note that while Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta 

 have worked out definite programs of assistance to direct farmer mar- 

 keting. Montana has not only m^de no such provision but seems to be 

 barred by the restriction of a constitution adopted a third of a cen- 

 tury ago and practically unchanged since then, from extending such 

 assistance. 



The Province of Saskatchewan under certain safeguards, advances 

 75 per cent of the first cost of co-operative creameries and elevators 

 and is repaid over a long period by amortized payments. If the con- 

 stitutional bar were removed, the establishment of co-operative institu- 

 tions under suitable conditions in Montana would result in more im- 

 mediate improvement of the bargaining status of the farmers than 

 will be possible by state regulation without such competition. This 

 thought is put forth in the conviction that no general or permanent 

 improvement of conditions in Montana is possible unless it arises from 

 the farmers, and that the responsibility and burden of farm conditions 

 rests on all. 



State Warehousing' Facilities: Legislation is pending in Congress 

 intended to provide avenues of credit for farmers while they are 

 attempting to market crops to their satisfaction. The nation-wide 



