Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1911-07-27
WORK OF ORANGES
Facts Concerning Cooperative
Buying and Selling In the
Various States.

The Grange Declaration Of Purposes
Says, "We Purpose Meeting Toseth-
or, Talking Together, Buying To-
sether, Selling Together and In Gen.
eraI Acting Together as the Occasion
May Require"
State Master Stetson of Maine I'm his
annual address said. "Intelligent CO.
operative buying and selling is a
fundamental principle in our grange
work. 1t is term applied to a system
dustrial purposes. 1t is the association
Of people for the management of COM
mercial interests and for the benefit
Of those associated. The advantage
of active cooperation comes in the
lower prices paid for articles used in
the home and on the farm and for the
increased price received by selling the
products Of the farm directly TO the
consumer"
Cooperative trade since the founda-
ton of the Order has always been a
prominent feature Of the grange work.
Years ago grange stores were more
numerous than now. And yet we find
a few Of these in the various states
that are doing large business, but
cooperation Is mostly carried on by
county and subordinate oranges within
their own membership, and they great
ly profit thereby. Cooperative selling
must be largely Of local nature. 1t
can be most successfully carried out
by subordinate and Pomona oranges.
For instance, some of the Pomona
oranges of Maine have realized this
and are at work selling together, with
the following as their motto; First,
the expansion Of both foreign and do
nestle products in Maine; second, to
obtain and disseminate seasonable in
formation regarding the crops abroad
that come into competition with their
home grown products, so that the
Maine producer may more intelligently
decide whether TO sell or hold his crops
for higher prices third, TO devise and
carry out proper system Of market
ing products whereby maximum price
shall be obtained with minimum cost
In selling"
The Connecticut Patrons Exchange
Is doing a substantial but not very
large business, amounting perhaps to
$4,000 per year. But even at that
it is saving many good dollars to mem
bers.
N loo
tive in business way. A single
grange in the fruit belt purchased 5000
pounds Of copper sulphate, two car
loads of lime and a carload of sulphur
and ton Of paris green. Another
grange in the same state placed sin
gle order for a ton Of paris green
Trainloads Of binder Irvine are pur
chased every year by grangers. An
other grange purchased $1,000 worth
of -four and feed.
In Ohio the state grange through
its trade contracts handled $4,000
worth Of farmers commodities. The
fertilizer business constituted $50, 433
of this amount, making saving Of
fully 81, $50 on fertilizers.
goods to the amount Of $4,000, and
the oranges in that state are doing a
large cooperative business. The ex-
ecutive committee Of the state grange
Is working on plans for state wide
cooperative buying agency. One
grange insurance company In that
state has membership of 4.167 and
arT,fnO r.fc IN %
659,216. The cost on each $1,000 OF
insurance was $190.
In New York state several hundred
thousand dollars I'm trade is handled
by trade contracts, and the county and
subordinate oranges are saving their
members hundreds Of dollars on farm
supplies. Nearly every grange state
where the grange membership is in
considerable numbers is making this
cooperative trade n most profitable
feature. Pennsylvania Is especially
notable for it's cooperative fire in
surance companies, telephone compa-
MES and particularly for cooperation
in erecting grange halls.
Farmers everywhere are learning
that they can succeed best by work
ing together, and cooperative enter
prises established by farmers not
members OF the Order of Patrons OF
Husbandry are also numerous and
profitable. For instance. the Puyallup
and Summer Fruit Growers associa-
ton of Washington state has 700 mem
bers and shipped last year over 62,OO0
crates Of red raspberries and nearly
10000 crates Of blackberries, its own
canning plant using 10000 crates Of
raspberries and A 900 crates Of black
berries. Ten years ago It's output did
not exceed 5000 crates. Now IL is
over 100000 crates. This association
was organized with capital Of $1,000
In 1000 shares.
At Voltaire. n. H.. the farmers own
several cooperative enterprises. In
deed. they own the town site and a
telephone line. They own an elevator.
on which last year n dividend Of 20
per cent was declared. They have a