COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS. 11 



STATISTICS OF COOPERATION. 



METHOD USED IN SECURING INFORMATION. 



In January, 1914, the Office of Markets and Rural Organization 

 undertook a survey of cooperative marketing in the United States. 

 The first step necessary in a study of this kind was to secure a list 

 of the names of the cooperative marketing organizations of the United 

 States. A nucleus for such a list was secured from the mailing lisfc 

 of the department and to this were added names received from 

 various other sources. Through the Bureau of Crop Estimates of 

 the Department of Agriculture a letter was sent to the voluntary 

 crop correspondents scattered throughout the United States. This 

 letter requested the correspondent to furnish the department with 

 the names and addresses of all the cooperative marketing organiza- 

 tions in his territory. Through the States Relations Service of the 

 department additional names were secured from the county agents. 

 In addition, some of the agricultural colleges, secretaries of state, and 

 State departments of agriculture furnished such lists of organizations 

 in their States as were available. From these various sources 

 approximately 12,500 names of farmers' purchasing and marketing 

 organizations were secured. 



Questionnaires which called for information relating to the plan of 

 organization, the number of members, the kind and volume of busi- 

 ness, the method of distributing profits, and other items were sent to 

 the organizations on the list compiled by the Department of Agri- 

 culture. Many were returned with the information that the organi- 

 zations had discontinued business. On account of inaccuracies in 

 the names of some of the organizations reported, there were some 

 duplicates on the list. In some instances the names proved to be 

 those of private concerns, not farmers' or cooperative organizations 

 in any sense. These corrections reduced the number on the list to 

 about 12,300. In all, 5,424 organizations have been included in the 

 final summations (see Table I). This means that more than 6,000 

 organizations have failed to report. It is believed that many of these 

 are not actively engaged in business, because they have failed to 

 reply to repeated requests for information. It is also probable that 

 some of this number failed to reply because they are private concerns 

 and therefore do not come within the scope of this survey. 



All of the strictly private concerns and the stock companies in 

 which a few stockholders appear to operate the business principally 

 for their own benefit have been ehminated, in order to make the 

 survey include as nearly as possible only farmers' cooperative mar- 

 keting organizations. While no hard and fast rules of classification 

 have been laid down, an attempt has been made to include all of 

 those organizations which are composed of a number of farmers and 

 are operated primarily for the benefit of the patrons. While a num- 

 ber of these organizations would not be classed as cooperative under 



