COOPERATIVE GRAIN MARKETING. 19 



Grain is bought from members and nonmembers alike on the basis 

 of prevailing market prices. Sometimes profits are made much in 

 excess of the margins which were expected at the time of the pur- 

 chase, and again large losses are similarly suffered. No attempt has 

 been made to market grain by means of pools extending over certain 

 periods and returns made to growers on the basis of average prices 

 received for grain of like variety and grade of a given pool, as has 

 been so successfully done in the marketing of certain perishable and 

 semiperishable products. An exception to this statement may have 

 to be made if an experiment now under way in the Pacific Northwest 

 is successful. The Pacific Northwest Wheat Growers' Associations 

 have recently been organized there. The purpose of these associa- 

 tions is collective bargaining in the sale of wheat under much the 

 same plan that certain California products are now marketed. 



Each grower upon becoming a member of the association will sign 

 a contract by which he agrees to surrender control over the mar- 

 keting of his crop for a period of years. His wheat must be 

 delivered to certain warehouses or shipping points, as ordered by the 

 association. The price to be paid for the wheat will not be known 

 definitely until all of the wheat of a particular kind and grade 

 pooled during the season has been sold. It is expected that by means 

 of a comprehensive warehousing scheme money may be borrowed 

 upon warehouse receipts in liberal amounts and that advances may 

 be made to the grower at the time of delivering his wheat. Also, as 

 wheat in certain pools is being sold and returns received, further 

 advances will be made to growers having wheat in that pool. The 

 principle upon which rests the entire plan, of course, is that an ex- 

 pert in the marketing of wheat will, over a period of years, be able 

 to market the wheat of the grower at a price averaging higher than 

 the individual could obtain for himself with his comparatively little 

 knowledge of world conditions affecting wheat prices. It is also 

 expected that if a considerable proportion of the wheat production 

 in the Pacific Northwest area is secured under contracts of this kind, 

 the manager or selling agent will become an important factor in that 

 market. 



At this time it is impossible to judge the ultimate success of pool- 

 ing as applied to grain. No doubt if there is merit in the plan no 

 better field for demonstrating it is to be found than in the Pacific 

 Northwest, where country warehousing is still the principal func- 

 tion of many farmers' elevators, whereas in the Middle Western 

 States the tendency has been away from the practice of storing grain 

 for farmers. In the States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho con- 

 siderable grain is still handled in sacks, piled in flat warehouses, 

 from which it is sold by growers to mills and brokers direct by in- 

 dorsement of warehouse receipts. 



