THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
193 
season. The saving to the grower averaged two to five cents per bushel more 
than he could have gotten by selling through commission firms. Several 
carloads of sacks were bought for shippers at a saving of one to three cents 
per sack. 
Because the organization had no established place of business, aside 
from its office, arrangements were made with a good, reliable broker to sell 
the potatoes ‘‘rolling/’ that is, the car was sold subject to inspection at the 
Minneapolis or St. Paul transfer yards. By the agreement one-half the 
brokerage charges came to the Association. This defrayed the cost of main- 
taining the office and yet allowed the return of a little more money 
to the grower, than he could otherwise get even if the broker had to sell 
the stock at commission prices. 
New Manager Installed. 
Shortly following the inauguration of the potato operations the writer, 
at his own request, went back to his work as Extension Horticulurist and 
the board of directors turned over the management to another man. Fric- 
tion very shortly developed between this man and the President of the or- 
ganization. At the first annual meeting the new manager secured the elec- 
tion of the man he wished for president. 
Next we chronicle a lawsuit with a disgruntled shipper over the loss of 
several carloads of produce placed in storage. While the matter has never 
been clearly stated to the writer, it was a proceeding which got the new 
manager and President into a questionable position in the eyes of the state 
Horticultural Society and the State Agricultural Extension Division which 
had jointly fostered and abetted the formation of the organization. 
New Organization Formed. 
The upshot of this situation was that the manager, the incumbent presi- 
dent, and a few friends, some of them being of the directorate board,, soon 
got their heads together, organized a stock company, and incorporated to 
do a general commission business under the organization name. The stock 
of this company was offered for sale to. local fruit and produce associations 
and individuals. It was slow to sell, however, and the writer has been in- 
formed that most of it was bought by the president and manager mentioned 
above and one or two other interested Twin City parties. So. the Minnesota 
Fruit Association passed into private hands and thereby died as fair a co- 
operative scheme as was ever born in a Commonwealth where co-opera- 
tion has flourished greatly. 
Lessons Drawn. 
1. Co-operative enterprises can not live in an atmosphere of disloyalty. 
They must have the best produce and effort of the membership and must 
have it all in order to succeed. 
