Cooperation 135 



dividends; and provided further: that should there be any 

 surplus of the net earnings after said dividends are paid and the 

 amount of surplus carried to account, the balance shall be divided 

 (pro rata) among the stockholders according to the amount of 

 business each may have furnished the company ; provided, 

 however, that the business of one year shall not affect the busi- 

 ness of another. 



The accounts of the different lines of business handled by the 

 company shall be kept separate, also the accounts of each stock- 

 holder shall be kept separate. 



The by-laws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of all 

 stock sold at any annual meeting, or at any special meeting 

 called by the Board for that purpose, after notice having been 

 given as provided for in these by-laws. 



There has been a larger movement among the dairy 

 farmers to handle their business along cooperative lines 

 than in any other branch of American agriculture. There 

 were nearly 6300 creameries and 3846 cheese factories 

 in the United States in 1911. According to the records 

 of the Dairy Division of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, 2120 of the creameries, or 33.6 per cent, and 

 349 of the cheese factories were organized by the farmers 

 as cooperative institutions. The largest number of co- 

 operative creameries are located in the Central and North- 

 ern-central states. In Minnesota, there were six hundred 

 and eight cooperative creameries in 1910; in Wisconsin, 

 three hundred and forty-seven; in Iowa, three hundred 

 and thirteen; in Michigan, one hundred and one; in 

 Indiana, seventy-seven ; in Illinois, fifty-five ; in New 

 York, one hundred and eighteen ; in Pennsylvania, ninety- 

 two ; and fifty-nine in Vermont. Of the cooperative cheese 



