SUGAR-CANE SIRUP MANUFACTURE 73 
Where production exceeds the demand of the local market, the 
shipment of surplus sirup in barrels to large-scale distributors and 
canners tends to limit the local supply of canned sirup, with conse- 
quent strengthening of local prices to the benefit of producers. 
- To obtain uniformity, grading and large-scale mixing of sirup of 
the same grade at a centrally located canning plant is the best plan. 
Each sirup maker’s surplus over what can be sold by himself at a 
satisfactory price in cans in the local market may be packed in 
barrels and sold to the canning plant. Although ‘‘farm-made sirup 
in buckets,’’ marketed locally, competes with the products of uni- 
form quality offered by the larger manufacturers and packers, the 
function of the larger packer in the sirup industry is an important 
one. Only the larger packers or distributors or cooperative asso- 
ciations are in a position to handle the marketing problem involved 
in finding an outlet for the increased volume of sirup necessary to 
make increased production possible. 
COOPERATIVE PLANTS 
When surplus sirup is shipped in barrels to a centrally located 
distributing agency or directly to a canning plant, such an agency or 
plant may be operated privately or on a cooperative basis. <A dis- 
tributing agency for sirup is primarily a warehouse, the management 
of which receives and grades the sirup and distributes it to the canners 
in accordance with the principles of efficient and orderly marketing. 
Sometimes this is in the hands of one or two local business men, who 
have connections with the various sirup packers and whose function 
is primarily that of middlemen and brokers. Again, the distributing 
agency is a warehouse owned and operated by the sirup producers on 
a cooperative basis. When the sirup is shipped directly to a canning 
plant, this may likewise be owned privately or by the producers on a 
cooperative basis. 
In 1925 there were few, if any, cooperative mills or canning plants 
in the cane-sirup industry. The cooperative principle, however, as 
applied to the distributing agency, or warehouse, has met with more 
favor and a considerable degree of success. From the producer’s 
point of view, the cooperative warehouse, if successful in receiving 
the bulk of the sirup from a wide area, helps to maintain a fair price 
for the sirup and to distribute sales to packers in an orderly manner. 
_ From the technical standpoint, a sirup factory, warehouse, or 
canning plant operated cooperatively does not differ essentially from 
one owned and operated privately. The difference is solely one of 
organization and management. Sponsors of a cooperative plant, 
whether for manufacturing, warehousing, or canning the sirup, Hould 
therefore carefully consider the factors which determine the success or 
failure of such enterprises. The question of greatest importance is 
whether or not the cane producers have a sufficient supply of cane 
or sirup to make the plant pay, and if so, whether they wish to truly 
cooperate. A strong organization and full cooperation under both 
favorable and temporarily adverse conditions are essential. A cooper- 
ative plant must receive the necessary volume of cane or of sirup; 
otherwise, it can not be operated efficiently and can not meet com- 
petition. lt must receive its cane or sirup at a price consistent with 
what other concerns already established in business are able to pay 
