UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
I BULLETIN No. 937 
Contribution from the Bureau of Markets 
GEORGE LIVINGSTON, Chief 
S\J^'^>J'U 
Washington, D. C. 
April 9, 1921 
COOPERATIVE GRAIN MARKETING. 
A Comparative Study of Methods in the United States and in 
Canada. 
By J. M. Mehl, Investigator in Cooperative Organization. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
The farmers' elevator movement 2 
Early development 2 
ilarketing conditions 4 
The United Farmers' Associa- 
tion L 5 
Examples of farmers' organizations 
in Canada 6 
The Saskatchewan Cooperative 
Elevator Co., Ltd 8 
Page. 
Examples of farmers' organizations 
in Canada — Continued. 
United Grain Growers, Ltd. 11 
Terminal elevators 12 
In the United States 15 
Local farmers' elevators 15 
Terminal activities 17 
Functions of cooperative gTain mar- 
keting organizations 18 
Comparisons and conclusions 20 
INTRODUCTION. 
The history of underlying causes and conditions surrounding the 
establishment and growth of a large number of the single-unit type ^ 
of farmers' elevators in the United States is not radically different 
from the history of the grain growers' movement in Canada. How- 
ever, in the actual establishment of marketing facilities, the farmers 
of Canada pursued a different course. Instead of the locally owned 
and operated form of farmers' elevators found in the Middle Western 
States of the United States the Canadians found it desirable to estab- 
lish centrally controlled elevators of the line-house type. While 
there are a number of the single-unit type of farmers' elevators in 
Canada, it is the rather conspicuous success of the line-house type 
which has attracted attention in this country, and it is these which 
are usually meant when reference is made to the Canadian plan. 
1 By the single-unit type of farmers' elevators is meant an elevator wherein ownership 
and control is vested in the body of stockholders in the immediate surrounding com- 
munity and which is operated as a separate unit independently of any other similar 
elevator. 
