2, DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 407, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Ala., April 18 and 14, 1920. A plan for the organization of large- 
scale cooperative marketing associations, similar to that of certain 
dried-fruit associations in California, was advanced at that meeting 
and was favorably received by a majority of those in attendance. 
After they returned home many of the delegates began to advocate 
such organizations for cotton producers within their own States.” 
By the end of 1925, 14 State-wide cooperative cotton-marketing as- 
sociations had been formed and had attained a total of 296,970 
memberships. 
Soon after the interest in centralized cooperative associations fér 
marketing cotton had been aroused, the tobacco markets of the 
Carolinas opened with much lower prices than had prevailed in 
the previous year. Tobacco producers in this territory—many of 
whom were also cotton producers—became interested in applying the 
same plan of organization to the marketing of tobacco. Conse- 
quently, an organization committee was selected to perfect plans for 
a tobacco cooperative marketing organization covering the producing 
areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. 
At a joint meeting of the organization committee and representa- 
tives of the cotton growers of North Carolina in January, 1921, plans 
were formulated for conducting membership campaigns simulta- 
neously for the two organizations. ‘The joint campaign was carried 
on during 1921 and was completed early in 1922. More than half 
the tobacco producers of the three States became members of the 
Tobacco Growers’ Cooperative Marketing Association. 
But the Burley tobacco growers of Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, 
and Indiana were the first to complete a membership campaign for 
a tobacco-marketing association covering the Burley producing area. 
The 1920 Burley crop had sold for less than half as much per pound 
as the 1919 crop. As a result of these low prices, several protest 
meetings were held and various remedies were suggested. An organ- 
ization was proposed for the purpose of withholding the crop from 
market and promoting a “cut-out” in 1921, but this did not 
materialize. 
A meeting of representatives from the Burley tobacco-producing 
section was called in Louisville, Ky., in March, 1921. The meeting 
was attended by representatives from other tobacco sections and by 
delegates from the Kentucky Farm Bureau and the Farmers’ Union. 
The plan of the centralized cooperative marketing associations was 
explained at this meeting, as it had been explained at the meeting 
of the American Cotton Association in Montgomery, and was ap- 
proved by resolution as “sound in principle.” Committees appointed 
to formulate plans for organization soon afterward approved the 
plan and contract advocated at the March meeting, and a member- 
ship campaign began in the Burley-producing section. By Novem- 
ber 15, 1921, contracts had been signed by 55,617 growers, estimated 
to represent over 75 per cent of the 1920 production in the four 
States, and the association proceeded to handle the 1921 crop. 
Growers of dark tobacco in western Kentucky and Tennessee were 
organized in 1922. There was less demand for organization in this 
section than was manifested in the Burley or in the Carolina-Vir- 
2For a brief account of the beginning of the cotton associations see U. S. Dept. Agr. 
Bul. No. 1892, ‘‘ Cooperative Marketing of Cotton,’ 1926. 
