COOPERATIVE GRAIN MARKETING. 11 
THE UNITED GRAIN GROWERS, LTD. 
The Grain Growers' Grain Co., organized in 1906, first operated 
under a Manitoba provincial charter. In 1911 it applied for and 
received a charter from the Dominion Government. The Alberta 
Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Co., organized in 1913, operated under 
a charter of the Alberta provincial government until 1917, when it 
amalgamated with the Grain Growers' Grain Co. and the two com- 
panies became the United Grain Growers, Ltd., by amendment to 
the Grain Growers' Grain Co.'s Dominion charter. At the time of 
the amalgamation the Grain Growers' Grain Co. had a paid-up capital 
stock of $1,357,382.46 and a surplus of $1,118,351.51, while the Al- 
berta Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Co. had a paid-up capital stock 
of $563,689 and a surplus of $541,004.38. On August 31, 1919, the 
paid-up capital stock of the new company, the United Grain Growers, 
Ltd., was $2,415,185.58 and the surplus $1,756,429.78. The author- 
ized capital stock of the new company was placed at $5,000,000, 
divided into 200,000 shares at $25 each. Because of the accumulation 
of a large surplus, tending to increase the real value of the shares, 
the selling price is fixed at $30 per share« Each member may own 
not more than 100 shares, and membership is limited to the owners 
or lessees of farm land or their wives, unless, by special resolutions of 
the members, others are admitted. Over 35,000 shareholders com- 
pose the present membership of the United Grain Growers, Ltd., 
and these are divided into locals as in the case of the Saskatchewan 
Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Co. To form a local 40 members 
are required, holding at least 267 shares. Each local elects a local 
board of 5 members, who act mainly in an advisory capacity to the 
general board of directors. The local also elects one delegate to rep- 
resent the supporting shareholders at the general meetings of the 
company. Each delegate has only 1 vote, regardless of the number 
of shareholders belonging to a single local, but in case a local has 
188 or more members it is entitled to have 2 delegates. In the meet- 
ings of the locals each shareholder has only 1 vote, and voting by 
proxy is not allowed either in the general meetings or in the local 
meetings. The ajffairs of the company are administered by a board 
of 12 directors, 4 of whom are elected each year to serve for a period 
of three years. 
A by-law provision gives full authority to the board of directors 
to determine the basis of the distribution of earnings. No patronage 
dividends have been paid. 
In the operation of its country elevators much the same methods 
are used by the United Grain Growers as are used by the Saskatche- 
wan Cooperative Elevator Co. Management is centralized in the 
office at Winnipeg, but the office organization of the old Alberta 
