34 BULLETIN 547, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
from $5 to $100, and the memberships are nontransferable in prac- 
tically all cases. In a few instances the mere signing of contracts 
to deliver all of certain products to the association for sale, con- 
stitutes membership. These contracts are continuous and the 
grower's right to cancel them is restricted to certain periods of each 
year. 
New companies. — Cooperation among fruit and produce associa- 
tions is passing through a stage of experimental development in most 
sections of the country, and is developing rapidly in many of the 
truck and newer fruit producing sections of the United States, es- 
pecially in the South. New concerns are launched each year. 
Although some of them endure but a short time, indications point 
toward a rapid development in the next few years in cooperative 
methods of handling perishable products in the producing sections of 
the country. 
Fruit and vegetable canneries. — Forty-five of the companies which 
are classed as fruit and produce associations in this study operate 
canneries. Practically all of these organizations are engaged pri- 
marily in canning fruit and vegetable products, but most of them ship 
products in the fresh state when markets are considered good. The 
largest number of farmers' canneries are found in Indiana and the 
North Pacific States; the business ranges from $10,000 to $1,500,000 
each per year. Various small berries, larger fruits, and vegetables 
are canned. A few of these concerns operate vinegar plants and 
evaporators in conjunction with the canning business. 
About $3,500,000 was received for canned and dried fruits and 
vegetables by cooperative canning plants in 1914. This is a com- 
paratively small amount, since the value of this business as a whole 
in the United States for 1914 was in excess of $158,000,000. Few 
farmers' canneries have succeeded. In one State alone 80 canneries 
which were organized during a period of 10 years by local farmers 
are now out of existence. None attained any degree of success. 
COTTON ORGANIZATIONS. 
Reports were received from 213 cotton associations distributed 
among 14 States. Over one-half of them are located in the States 
of Texas and Georgia, the former reporting 71 and the latter 44, 
Alabama reported 19, Arkansas 15, South Carolina 14, Oklahoma 13, 
Mississippi 11, and North Carolina 10; and the remainder are scat- 
tered over the other cotton-producing States of the South. Prac- 
tically all are cotton warehousing associations. Comparing the 
number of grain elevators and the number of cotton associations, it 
is evident that the cotton growers of the South are not nearly as 
well organized as the gram growers of the North Central States c 
