COOPERATIVE GRAIX MAEKETII^G. 19 
Grain is bought from members and nonmembers alike on the basis 
of jDrevailing market prices. Sometimes profits are made much in 
excess of the margins which were expected at the time of the pur- 
chase, and again large losses are similarly suffered. Xo attempt has 
been made to market grain by means of pools extending over certain 
periods and returns made to growers on the basis of average prices 
received for grain of like variety and grade of a given pool, as has 
been so successfulh" done in the marketing of certain perishable and 
semiperishable products. An exception to this statement may have 
to be made if an experiment now under way in the Pacific Xorthwest 
is successful. The Pacific Xorthwest Wheat Growers' Associations 
have recently been organized there. The purpose of these associa- 
tions is collective bargaining in the sale of wheat under much the 
same plan that certain California products are now marketed. 
Each grower upon becoming a member of the association will sign 
a contract by which he agrees to surrender control over the mar- 
keting of his crop for a period of years. His wheat must be 
delivered to certain warehouses or shipping points, as ordered by the 
association. The price to be paid for the wheat will not be known 
definitely until all of the wheat of a particular kind and grade 
pooled during the season has been sold. It is expected that by means 
of a comprehensive warehousing scheme money may be borrowed 
upon warehouse receipts in liberal amounts and that advances may 
be made to the grower at the time of delivering his wheat. Also, as 
wheat in certain pools is being sold and returns received, further 
advances will be made to growers having wheat in that pool. The 
princiiDle upon which rests the entire plan, of course, is that an ex- 
pert in the marketing of wheat will, over a period of years, be able 
to market the wheat of the grower at a price averaging higher than 
the individual could obtain for himself with his comparatively little 
knowledge of world conditions affecting wheat prices. It is also 
expected that if a considerable proportion of the wheat production 
in the Pacific Xorthwest area is secured under contracts of this kind, 
the manager or selling agent will become an important factor in that 
market. 
At this time it is impossible to judge the ultimate success of pool- 
ing as applied to grain. Xo doubt if there is merit in the plan no 
better field for demonstrating it is to be found than in the Pacific 
Xorthwest, where country warehousing is still the principal func- 
tion of many farmers' elevators, whereas in the Middle Western 
States the tendency has been away from the practice of storing grain 
for farmers. In the States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho con- 
siderable grain is still handled in sacks, piled in flat warehouses, 
from which it is sold by growers to mills and brokers direct by in- 
dorsement of warehouse receipts. 
