Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1921-03-24
POOLING OF GRAIN
CENTRAL FEATURE
OF SELLING PLAN
Explains How Grain Would Be
Pooled by Growers Either
Nationally or Locally Ac-
cording to Plan Worked
Out by Farmers Committee
of Seventeen.

Oul Ny EdIAIACiS NOllAAlAelC0
Of Seventeen.
Chicago, March. 22.Pooling of
farmers grain either on a nation
al or local scale, constitutes the out
standing feature Of the national Co
operating marketing plan proposed
by the Committee of Seventeen,
Chairman. c.. H. Gustafson said here
today, explaining it's details.
The committee, whose full name
is the Fa, mers' Grain Marketing
Committee OF Seventeen, is holding
state meetings this month prepara-
tory to a ratification conference in
Chicago April 6. The committee
represents cooperative organizations
of farmers interested in grain mar
keting, prominent among them the
American Farm Bureau Federation.
AS an alternative to the pooling
plans, farmers may sell direct.
s''The national pooling plan calls
for pooling grain with q central a
gency, selling by grade and then dis
tributing the profits equally to each
contributor to the pool" MI. Gus
tafson said. "This would operate to
give each producer the average price
for grains OF certain grade which
he contributed to the pool. 1t
would insure the producer the aver
age price for the year. Pooling pro-
ducts in this manner has reached its
highest development among the Cal
ifornia cooperative organizations:
Products 80 pooled pass out Of
the control of the individual pro-
ducer and the grain will be sold by
the directors of the pool at the time
that they deem most opportune.
provision Is also made for a To-
cal pool by members of a single
community. In both local and ma
tional pools the control is centraliz-
ed and the selling price averaged.
'The direct sale plan allows farm
ers who so desire to bring their
grain to the cooperative elevators
and sell on the current market quo
'tation as is done at the present time
at privately owned elevators Fur:
iher, they, can, avail. themselves sof
the ware housing facilities Of the CO.
operative elevators and terminals
and not sell until weeks or months
later. Producers who dispose of
their grain in this manner share
equally in the profits Of the ware
housing facilities, export corpora
tion and other national cooperative
departments on the, basis of the
number of bushels which they deliv-
er to the elevators.
For those farmers who do not
wish to enter pool or to sell direct,
there is another avenue of reaching
the markets. One farmer or several
farmers who have sufficient grain
to make up one or more carloads,
may consign grain by the carload
thru the cooperative elevator to
cooperative marketing agencies to
be located at the different terminal
markets, such as Chicago and Min
neapolis. The grain would then be
sold at market price upon arrival.
BY handling his grain in this man
tual overhead cost of marketing it.
Altogether, we believe the new
plan is sufficiently broad to allow
the producer to use his own judg-
ment and market his products in the
way that ne considers best, while, at
the same time, he has the benefit
of a, complete national marketing
machine that has no purpose or ey-
cuse for existence but to protect his
interests and return a larger per
cent of the market value to him with
out infringing upon the rights of his
consumer customers. OF these three
alternatives, the method Of market
ing which proves most satisfactory
and more nearly returns price that
will make farming profitable will
be the marketing method that will
develop and increase in popularity.
This plan, Isl, in fact, we believe
but the next, orderly step in cooper
alton that the farmers have already
undertaken. Thru cooperation ele-
yators they are, handling today a
great deal of the grain they produce,
but their cooperative effort stops at
the railroad track. With more than
5000 Of these cooperative eleva-
tors in operation the foundation is
already laid for new national mar
koting agency