40 BULLETIN 861, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



COOPERATION. 



Cooperative organization has reached a high state of development 

 in this State, particularly in the grape-growing sections, and practi- 

 cally all the. shipments from Van Buren County and many from 

 Berrien are made through these associations. 



The tendency in the growth of the cooperative movement in 

 Michigan seems to have been first toward localization and is now 

 toward federation. The individual associations are small and seldom 

 control loadings at more than a few stations, thus differing markedly 

 from some of the most successful associations in other States. The 

 movement toward federation of these various small associations is 

 a promising solution of the rather unfortunate spirit of competition 

 that often arises between the individual organizations. 



These small associations are usually stock companies that own their 

 own offices and market the grapes of their members, usually on the 

 basis of a daily pool of varieties. Most of them handle other, fruits 

 as well, and also buy baskets, twine, spray material, and even posts, 

 hay, and feed for their members. Few of the individual associations 

 actually sell the grapes, but confine their activities to inspection and 

 loading, keeping accurate records of the amounts of each variety de- 

 livered daily. The usual practice is to give each member 75 or 80 

 per cent of the estimated market value of each day's haulings and 

 to prorate the surplus among the members when the books are bal- 

 anced at the close of the season, the returns to stockholders depending 

 on the particular arrangements of each association. 



The shipments by these small associations are sold in the main by 

 one or the other two large agencies — the one a distributing com- 

 pany of national scope, which charges a brokerage fee for its serv- 

 ices, and the other a cooperative federation of the associations them- 

 selves. 



GKAPE- JUICE FACTOEIES. 



All of the grape-juice factories of this region are located in Van 

 Buren County. Lawton is the center of the industry, with a smaller 

 development at Paw Paw and Mattawan. Most of the factories buy 

 on a standard contract which guarantees the grower the daily market 

 price on bulk stock, with a fixed minimum. As Michigan bulk ship- 

 ments are light, a daily market price on this class of stock often 

 fails of establishment, and it is left to the juice factories to state the 

 price for each day. These factories sometimes buy in Berrien 

 County for shipment, but most of the stock is secured by local haul- 

 ings, which fact explains the very light shipments from Lawton 

 in 1918. 



