COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS. 31 



each year; the average volume as reported was $48,806. Using this 

 average as a basis, the annual volume of business for the 1,708 cream- 

 eries and cheese factories reporting is $83,360,648. (See Table III.) 



Only 58 of the creameries and cheese factories report handling 

 products or supplies other than milk or cream. Five report han- 

 dling fruit and produce, four report fuel, three live stock, two grain, 

 and forty-four miscellaneous products. There is a striking contrast 

 between creamery and cheese factory associations and elevator com- 

 panies in this regard. Various reasons may be given in explanation 

 of this difference. The creameries and cheese factories have a more 

 uniform seasonal distribution of work than do the elevators, and the 

 nature of the butter maker's or cheese maker's duties makes it incon- 

 venient for him to attend to outside duties. It may not interfere 

 very much with the work of the elevator manager for him to go out 

 and assist a farmer in loading fuel, lumber, or other supplies, but it 

 would be an unsatisfactory arrangement to have the butter maker 

 divide his efforts between making butter and loading lumber or shov- 

 eling coal. The elevators are all on the railroad, are convenient for 

 the unloading of supplies, and usually have ample warehouse and 

 storage facilities. The creameries are often located at some distance 

 from the railroad and usually lack the proper storage places for the 

 handling of supplies. 



Members. — The average membership reported was 83, or a total of 

 141,786 members in the 1,708 associations. As in the case of the 

 elevators, many farmers are patrons of the creameries who do not hold 

 memberships. Unlike patrons of many elevators, however, patrons of 

 a large number of the creameries and cheese factories share in the bene- 

 fits of the organization on the same basis as members, the farmer who 

 delivers all of his product to the company being considered a member. 

 There are cases where stock ownership forms the basis of membership, 

 and others where the payment of a small fee is necessary to obtain 

 the benefits of the association. 



New companies. — The organization movement among dairy farmers 

 is much older than that among the grain farmers; consequently, 

 during the last few years the number of new farmers' creameries and 

 cheese factories formed has been greatly exceeded by the number of 

 farmers' grain elevators which have come into existence. The most 

 rapid growth of the farmers' elevator movement has occurred during 

 the last five years, while the height of the rapid organization period 

 with creameries and cheese factories was reached about 1912. 



A few central selling associations are being formed, and indications 

 are that a great many of these will be created in the next few years by 

 federating the present companies in a given territory, as the opinion 

 prevails among the companies that better means must be provided 



