COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AND MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS. 31 
each year; the average volume as reported was $48,806. Using this 
average as a basis, the* annual volume of business for the 1,708 cream- 
eries and cheese factories reporting is $83,360,648. (See Table III.) 
Only 58 of the creameries and cheese factories report handling 
products or^supplies other than milk or cream. Five report han- 
dling fruit and produce, four report fuel, three live stock, two grain, 
and forty-four miscellaneous products. There is a striking contrast 
between creamery and cheese factory associations and elevator com- 
panies in this regard. Various reasons may be given in explanation 
of this difference. The creameries and cheese factories have a more 
uniform seasonal distribution of work than do the elevators, and the 
nature of the butter maker's or cheese maker's duties makes it incon- 
venient for him to attend to outside duties. It may not interfere 
very much with the work of the elevator manager for him to go out 
and assist a farmer in loading fuel, lumber, or other supplies, but it 
would be an unsatisfactory arrangement to have the butter maker 
divide his efforts between making butter and loading lumber or shov- 
eling coal. The elevators are all on the railroad, are convenient for 
the unloading of supplies, and usually have ample warehouse and 
storage facilities. The creameries are often located at some distance 
from the railroad and usually lack the proper storage places for the 
handling of supplies. 
Members. — The average membership reported was 83, or a total of 
141,786 members in the 1,708 associations. As in the case of the 
elevators, many farmers are patrons of the creameries who do not hold 
memberships. Unlike patrons of many elevators, however, patrons of 
a large number of the creameries and cheese factories share in the bene- 
fits of the organization on the same basis as members, the farmer who 
delivers all of his product to the company being considered a member. 
There are cases where stock ownership forms the basis of membership, 
and others where the payment of a small fee is necessary to obtain 
the benefits of the association. 
New companies. — The organization movement among dairy farmers 
is much older than that among the grain farmers; consequently, 
during the last few years the number of new farmers' creameries and 
cheese factories formed has been greatly exceeded by the number of 
farmers' grain elevators which have come into existence. The most 
rapid growth of the farmers' elevator movement has occurred during 
the last five years, while the height of the rapid organization period 
with creameries and cheese factories was reached about 1912. 
A few central selling associations are being formed, and indications 
are that a great many of these will be created in the next few years by 
federating the present companies in a given territory, as the opinion 
prevails among the companies that better means must be provided 
