128 Cooperation in Agriculture 



The Plan of a Farmers' Elevator Company 



The plan of the grain producers is simple. The farmers 

 in a locality form a buying and selling association with 

 capital stock varying from $2500 to $20,000. The shares 

 of stock, varying from $10 to $100 each, are held exclu- 

 sively by producers, and the amount an individual may 

 own is usually limited to prevent the control of the asso- 

 ciation by a few individuals. These companies have 

 usually been incorporated under the joint-stock company 

 laws of the states. The earnings are generally distrib- 

 uted on the basis of capital, the dividends sometimes 

 running as high as one hundred per cent. The articles 

 of incorporation often provide that each stockholder 

 may have but one vote, regardless of the number of shares 

 that he owns. In some of the companies, the surplus 

 is distributed in proportion to the amount of grain sold 

 by each member, after paying a dividend of six per cent 

 on the stock and retaining a surplus of a few thousand 

 dollars in the treasury. Before a producer may sell his 

 stock, the associations generally require him to offer it 

 to the company either to be purchased or to be placed 

 by the association. When the grain association has 

 raised sufficient capital, it builds or leases an elevator 

 holding from 10,000 to 100,000 or more bushels of grain. 

 It provides that the members shall sell the grain to the 

 association, though a member is permitted to sell to an 

 outside firm by paying to the association one cent a bushel 

 on every bushel sold in this manner. By this provision, the 

 line elevators or local grain dealers can purchase from an 

 association member, and in so doing support the farmers' 



