Vol. LXXI. No. 4154. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 8, 1912. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
into central or district societies. At the present 
time there are 26 such central purchase societies and 
these stand in close relation to each other through 
their officers. As a result of this cooperation, organi¬ 
zations have been formed with which any of the 
companies are glad to make terms and do business. 
The quality of the goods purchased, especially of the 
fertilizers, feed stuffs and seeds, is closely watched 
and tests are made regularly to see that the guaran- 
BOSSY AND HER BEST FRIEND. Fig. 254 . 
tees are fulfilled. In visiting agricultural experiment 
stations in the different parts of Germany last Winter, 
I found that in some of them as many as 10,000 
chemical analyses are made each year of fertilizers 
and feeds. Upon inquiring from whom these samples 
came, I was told from cooperative purchase societies 
and from manufacturers. These societies are doing 
what the individual fanner could not do except at 
considerable expense and trouble in getting analyses 
made of the goods purchased. 
Within 10 years the volume of business done by 
these purchase societies has increased six times and 
in 1910 (the last year for which figures are available) 
over 1,000,000 tons of fertilizer, 400,000 tons of feed¬ 
ing stuffs, 10,000 tons of seeds and 1,000,000 tons of 
coal were purchased through them by farmers. The 
result of the organization of these purchase societies 
has been not only to reduce the price and improve 
the quality of the goods handled through them, but 
all other goods of the 
same kind sold to farm¬ 
ers privately must com¬ 
pete both in price and 
quality, so that the socie¬ 
ties have had a beneficial 
effect in giving all farm¬ 
ers a better grade of 
goods at a cheaper price. 
These organizations 
are benefiting not only 
the farmers themselves, 
but they accomplish an 
economic saving in the 
distribution of goods 
that benefits the mer¬ 
chant as well as the 
farmer. They substitute 
a wholesale market for 
a retail, goods arc sold 
and shipped in car load 
lots instead of in one 
and two ton lots, and 
the sale of goods is 
made to one person or 
at most a small commit¬ 
tee instead of to fifty 
or a hundred different 
farmers. All of these 
savings enable the mer¬ 
chant to sell his goods 
on a narrower margin 
and the farmer gets the 
benefit of it. 
Cooperation has 
proven to be the key to 
success for the German 
farmer and it certainly 
offers great possibilities 
to the farmers of Amer¬ 
ica. The greatest prob¬ 
lem before the American 
farmer at the present 
time is not the produc¬ 
tion of larger crops, the 
improvement of his live¬ 
stock, or even the main¬ 
tenance of the fertility 
of his soil, important as 
all of these are, but 
rather the reduction of 
cost of distribution, 
both of what he buys 
and what he sells. If 
this can be done the farmer will get a larger pro¬ 
portion of what the consumer pays for farm products 
as well as the consumer getting them at a lower price. 
If the cost of distribution can be reduced on the 
goods he buys, he will pay more nearly what the 
manufacturer gets for his products and it will be 
mutually beneficial. 
The most feasible solution of the problem is by 
cooperation. It has proven entirely satisfactory in 
the countries that have used it the longest, and its 
FARMERS AS COOPERATIVE BUYERS. 
How the German Farmer Purchases. 
Next in importance to the cooperative agricultural 
credit associations of Germany are the cooperative 
societies for the purchase of farm supplies. These 
have been developed principally within the last 20 
years and are now found very generally distributed 
over the entire country. According to the latest 
available statistics there 
are over 4,000 such 
societies, with an aver¬ 
age membership of over 
100 per society, which 
means that over 400,000 
German farmers are 
members and purchase 
their supplies through 
them. The average 
amount of goods pur¬ 
chased through each 
society amounted to 
$12,500 per year, or a 
total of $50,000,000, 
which is estimated as 
being one-sixth of such 
goods purchased by the 
farmers of Germany. 
While all kinds of sup¬ 
plies used by farmers 
are purchased through 
such societies, the 
greater part of their 
business is the buying of 
commercial fertilizer, 
feed stuffs, seed and 
grain, coal and farm 
machinery. The result 
of the organization of 
purchase societies has 
been the collective or 
wholesale purchase of 
these products with a 
guarantee as to their 
quality. It has resulted 
m furnishing the farmer 
goods not only at a 
cheaper price but of a 
better quality and has 
insured his getting what 
he paid for. 
Before the organiza¬ 
tion of the purchase 
societies the farmers, 
and especially the small 
farmers which make up 
by far the vast majority 
of German farmers, 
were helpless to make 
terms with business 
firms with whom they 
had to deal. This was 
especially true of the 
fertilizer companies and the commercial feed dealers. 
These two classes of products, both of which are 
largely used by German farmers, are handled by 
wealthy and closely organized companies. The 
farmer who bought only a few tons could require 
no guarantee of quality or see that it was fulfilled 
when furnished without an undue amount of ex¬ 
pense and trouble. The prices were being constantly 
advanced and in self defense the farmers organized 
into local purchase societies and the local societies 
