12 
BULLETIN -547, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
a strict interpretation of the definition of cooperation, it has been 
thought best to include all of those in which the benefits of the busi- 
ness to some extent accrue to the farmer patrons, which benefits 
would not have been secured from a private company, owned and 
operated for the sole purpose of making money in the business. 
There are undoubtedly a number of organizations whose names and 
addresses have not yet been secured, and probably some of those that 
failed to reply are actively engaged in business: consequently this 
survey does not cover all of the organizations. It is believed, how- 
ever, that those included represent most of the going concerns, and 
that the information secured is fairly complete. Many cooperative 
associations reach the point of organization only, as is shown by the 
large number of letters received by the Department of Agriculture 
from farmers, stating that an association had been formed in their 
community, but as yet had failed to do business to any considerable 
extent. 
DESCRIPTION OF TABLES. 
The information secured from the survey has been summarized 
and is presented in Tables I to III, inclusive. In Table I the total 
number of farmers' organizations reporting to the Office of Markets 
and Rural Organization, for each class of business, is shown by States 
as well as for the United States as a whole. (See also Charts 2 and 3.) 
The column headed " Grain elevators and warehouses" includes the 
grain warehouses common in the North Pacific States as well as the 
regular grain elevators. Creameries and cheese factories have been 
grouped together because in a number of instances one plant makes 
both butter and cheese. As many associations handle both fruit and 
produce, these two forms have been grouped in the same manner. 
The miscellaneous class includes the enterprises that could not be 
grouped in any of the other classes. Of the 5,424 organizations in- 
cluded in this report, 1,637 are grain elevators and warehouses, 1,708 
creameries and cheese factories, 871 fruit and produce, 213 cotton, 
275 store, 43 tobacco, 96 live stock, and 581 miscellaneous associations. 
Table I.— Total 
number of farmers' organizations 
by States. 
reporting for 
each class of b 
usiness, 
Total 
number 
report- 
ing. 
Kind of business. 
State. 
Grain 
elevator 
and 
warehouse. 
Cream- 
eries and 
cheese 
factories. 
Fruit 
and 
produce. 
Cotton. 
Stores. 
Tobacco. 
Live ! Miseel- 
stock. 1 laneous. 
51 
20 
3 
63 
124 
28 
3 
1 
55 
5 
17 
19 
l 
15 
2 
1 
1 4 
3 
SQ 
1 
20 
13 
14 
3 
3 
11 
1 
7 
California 197 
34 
3 
8 
20 
K 
3 
1 
Florida G9 
2 
44 
12 
Georgia 55 
Idaho - r »Q 
2 
1 
2 
4 
9 
192 
6 
34 
26 
Illinois 
203 
ii ..:::::: 
24 
