UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



J& BULLETIN No. 937 



?'Mk < s3- / ii^» Contribution from the Bureau of Markets 



GEORGE LIVINGSTON, Chief 



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Washington, D. C. 



April 9, 1921 



COOPERATIVE GRAIN MARKETING. 



A Comparative Study of Methods in the United States and in 



Canada. 



By J. M. Mehl, Investigator in Cooperative Organization. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 



The farmers" elevator movement 



Early development 



Marketing conditions 



The United Farmers' Associa- 

 tion 



Examples of farmers' organizations 



in Canada 



The Saskatchewan Cooperative 

 Elevator Co., Ltd 



Examples of farmers' organizations 

 in Canada — Continued. 



United Grain Growers, Ltd. 11 



Terminal elevators 12 



In the United States 15 



Local farmers' elevators 15 



Terminal activities 17 



Functions of cooperative grain mar- 

 keting organizations 18 



Comparisons and conclusions 20 



INTRODUCTION. 



The history of underlying causes and conditions surrounding the 

 establishment and growth of a large number of the single-unit type x 

 of farmers' elevators in the United States is not radically different 

 from the history of the grain growers' movement in Canada. How- 

 ever, in the actual establishment of marketing facilities, the farmers 

 of Canada pursued a different course. Instead of the locally owned 

 and operated form of farmers' elevators found in the Middle Western 

 States of the United States the Canadians found it desirable to estab- 

 lish centrally controlled elevators of the line-house type. While 

 there are a number of the single-unit type of farmers' elevators in 

 Canada, it is the rather conspicuous success of the line-house type 

 which has attracted attention in this country, and it is these which 

 are usually meant when reference is made to the Canadian plan. 



1 By the single-unit type of farmers' elevators is meant an elevator wherein ownership 

 and control is vested in the body of stockholders in the immediate surrounding com- 

 munity and which is operated as a separate unit independently of any other similar 

 elevator. 



