COOPERATIVE GRAIN MARKETING. 



17 



growers of the Middle West to follow the marketing of their grain 

 beyond the local railroad station. Certainly the advantage will not 

 be so great as it is commonly expected to be by those who view ter- 

 minal marketing from a distance. But the conviction is general 

 among the grain growers that some advantage is to be had, and it is 

 doubtful whether anything but actual experience can affect that con- 

 viction. The problem, therefore, is not to discourage what is a 

 legitimate and proper activity 

 on the part of the grain growers, 

 if they wish to engage in it, but 

 rather to aid in the discovery of 

 means and methods which will 

 make intelligent and constructive 

 effort possible. 



TERMINAL ACTIVITIES. 



To persons who have been in- 

 clined to view the Canadian 

 methods of cooperative grain 

 marketing as something which 

 should be adopted immediately 

 by the grain growers of this 

 country, it may be interesting to 

 know that within our own bor- 

 ders at the present time are at 

 least three organizations which 

 resemble in character the organizations of western Canada. It is 

 true that none has yet approached in size either of the two large 

 Canadian companies, but the idea of centralized management and 

 the operation of local farmers' elevators as a line-house system in 

 connection with terminal activities is not new in this country. 



The Equity Cooperative Exchange of St. Paul, Minn., reports 

 about 80 country elevators in operation as part of a line-house sys- 

 tem. This company was first organized as a department of the 

 American Society of Equity in 1908, and was incorporated under the 

 laws of North Dakota in 1911. The local elevators of the Equity Co- 

 operative Exchange are controlled absolutely by the general ex- 

 change directors, but, like Canadian companies, provision is made for 

 a local advisory board. In addition to country elevators owned and 

 operated as a part of the exchange system, there are a number of the 

 locally owned and operated type of farmers' elevators which own shares 

 of the capital stock of the exchange. These, of course, are operated as 

 free agencies and may or may not favor the exchange with their 

 grain shipments. The exchange operates a terminal elevator at St. 



-Bulk-handling elevator 

 Pacific Northwest. 



