4 BULLETIN 371, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Under the fifth division may be considered the companies which 
are similar to those operating under division four where all the 
profits are retained in the locals, or pooled in the general treasury 
to be prorated according to the business of the patrons, but with 
this difference—that the companies themselves do not enter upon 
any business except that properly belonging to primary elevators. 
In order to secure the benefits of trading on the board of trade a 
company organized explicitly for that purpose might be employed. 
All the stock in such a corporation could then be owned either by 
the several stockholders of the primary elevator company or by the 
elevator company itself if so authorized under the law. 
The profits accruing to such a company in the first place could 
be distributed to the individual stockholders, or in the second case 
could be paid into the general treasury of the primary elevator com- 
pany and there prorated to the several locals according to the amount 
of business each had transacted. Under present conditions of the 
market any plan of organization which attempts the distribution 
of patronage dividends which in any way embrace profits accruing 
to the organization on the boards of trade doubtless would meet 
with opposition. 
ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS PRACTICE IN RELATION TO 
PATRONAGE DIVIDEND PAYMENTS. 
Business methods employed to effect the complete distribution of 
profits derived from the transaction of business in cooperative com- — — 
panies and societies are at present in the experimental state. The 
newness of the application of thoroughgoing cooperative methods 
has not given time for an extended study of those business and ac- 
counting requisites necessary for the scientific operation of the 
business. In privately operated elevators the same need has not 
been felt for accurate records and improved business methods as has 
arisen since cooperative methods of transacting the business of agri- 
cultural marketing organizations became general. Because each 
member of a cooperative organization is in fact an interested partner, 
and to some extent feels a personal responsibility for the success of 
the association, it has become imperative in such societies or com- 
panies that their methods of operation and systems of accounts be 
clear, comprehensive, and at the same time easily understood. 
DESIRABILITY OF STANDARDIZATION OF ACCOUNTING RECORDS. 
Progress in cooperative methods of handling grain has been so 
rapid that in many cases the business has outgrown the methods 
which were borrowed from other lines of operation. Systems of 
accounts and plans of operation have been tried which often were 
not suited to the needs of the business. For every reason it would 
seem the part of wisdom for leaders in the movement to work to- 
