COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS. 37 



of this class of organizations is $82,986, making the total for the 581 

 organizations $48,214,866. 



Four hundred and ninety-four organizations reported an average 

 membership of 231; at this rate the total membership in the 581 

 associations is 134,211. 



Some of the associations which have been included in the miscel- 

 laneous class failed to report the products and supplies handled. The 

 others reported handling a variety of products. Fruit and produce 

 are handled by 68, fuel by 43, lumber by 42, fertilizers by 42, grain 

 by 22, nuts by 19, cream by 13, cotton by 12, live stock by 7, mer- 

 chandise by 5, tobacco by 3, and miscellaneous products and supplies, 

 other than those mentioned, are handled by 339. 



COOPERATION IN REPRESENTATIVE STATES. 



In order to give a clear presentation of the status of organization 

 in the various parts of the United States, brief statements showing 

 the results of the survey in different States are included. By selecting 

 States representative of the different sections of the country, the 

 varying conditions surrounding the organization of the farmers are 

 shown. Several of the States of the North Central group have been 

 included because in this section cooperation among farmers is more 

 general than in any other part of the country. States have been 

 selected also to show the e^ttent of agricultural organization among 

 the fruit growers of the West, the farmers of the South, of the tobacco 

 belt, the truck-growing regions, and the older farming regions of the 

 North Atlantic States. 



MINNESOTA. 



Minnesota leads the States in the number of cooperative organ- 

 izations of farmers. Of the 5,424 organizations in the United States 

 which are included in this survey, 980, or 18 per cent of the total, 

 are located in Minnesota. The prominence of Minnesota's place in 

 the matter of marketing organizations among the farmers is largely 

 due to its importance as a dairy State. Cooperative creameries and 

 cheese factories make up about 63 per cent of Minnesota's total, while 

 the elevator companies comprise about 25 per cent. The remaining 

 12 percent include live-stock shipping associations, fruit and produce 

 associations, and a few miscellaneous organizations. 



The creameries and cheese factories of Minnesota show the possi- 

 bilities of such farmers' organizations. Over 600 of the 850 cream- 

 eries of the State are owned by the farmers. Table II shows that 

 most of these creameries are cooperative in character. Nearly all of 

 the farmers' associations in Minnesota which report the stock- 

 company plan of organization are farmers' elevators; the other 

 classes adhere much more closely to cooperative principles in the 

 method of conducting their business. 



