, 1924-04-16
FARM
COOPERATIVE
SELLING
By GLENN C. HAYES
More Than Million Farmers
Are Interested

hho ma Il u lelloN HIS II HuTu IlDlp
keeping his head above water it's time
for hin to learn to keep out of the
deep places"
IA tall. gray-haired farmer rose
from his seat. "Just a minute. Mr..
Speaker-you have us farmers all
wrong. We aren't afraid of the deep
water. That's where we do our best
swimming. We all belong to co-opera-
tive marketing associations. Perhaps
you didn't know that they furnish life
preservers o the fellows that can't
swim alone.
"A million farmers kept afioat that
way during 1928"
The farmer was right. More than a
million American farmers have learned
to keep up in deep water. They are
the men who are making cooperative
marketing the greatest farm organi-
cation in the world.
Last year 81 per cent of the citrus
fruit produced in the United States.
so per cent of the dried fruit. nearly
three-fourths of the tobacco. one-half
of the milk and butter, 10 per cent
of the live stock, Is per cent of the
cotton, 60 per cent of the nuts and
large amounts of such products as
fruits, eggs, wool and vegetables trav-
eled the cooperative road to market.
California Leads.
There are now eight great national
cooperative exchanges and ITS state
declarations. Territorial groups num-
Der over 112, while local marketing
associations total over 1000. Cali
fornia leads all other states in the vol
ume of comparatively marketed prod
ucts, last "A sending half of her
S5OO,OOO.0O0 crop to market through
cooperative channels.
The dried fruit industries have the
largest percentage of their groups COM
pletely organized. Ninety per cent OF
the r~aisins, IS per cent of the prunes
and so per cent of the dried figs,
peaches and apricots are marketed CO.
operatively.
Second best among the farmers or
ganized industries are the tobacco
groups of the South and East. TAX
Ing the association as a whole, they
represent DOT. 800 growers. Seventy
per cent of all the tobacco used in
the United States was handled through
these associations during 1923. All
this great work of tobacco organiza-
ton has been lone in a period of less
than two years.
Perhaps the third best organized
American commodity is the nut indus
try. Over 90 per cent of the Ameri-
can almonds, 90 per cent of the wal
nuts and 80 per cent of the jumbo
white peanuts are handled through the
farmers marketing associations.
Interstate and state dairy groups
are now marketing one-fourth of the
nations milk and butter supply. Dur
ing 1923 there were nearly 200 CO.
operative milk marketing associations,
1910 cooperative creameries and over
$500 cooperative cheese factories.
Plans are now under way for the
forming of a national cooperative
dairy sales agency to handle the bust
ness of all the cooperative associa-
tions.
The wheat marketing machine has
barely made its start. Yet, between
four and five per cent of the nations
wheat was handled by co-operatives
during the past season. Today there
are two national organizations and
twelve state units. Plans are now un-
der way for the consolidation of all
the wheat organizations into one unit
under the direction of the National
Wheat Growers Advisory committee.
In every grain section of the coun-
try are the local farmers elevator
companies, some 5,216 of them in all.
Tha~n n1n,-n+arc hnua a n1aDahnrchin
of over $4,000 and a capital of $780,
100000. The annual value of the grain
handled averages over S625. 100000.
In 1922 the. California Fruit Grow
ers' exchange marketed GS per cen of
the citrus fruit of the state and n
group of other co-operatives handled
between 10 and 10 per cent of the
crop. In Florida 40 per cent of the
citrus crop was marketed through an
association of growers. Fully 65 per
cent of the citrus crop in the United
States goes to market through a pool.
Fruit Also Handled.
Fresh fruit associations include
more than o separate local units and
about a dozen larger organizations.
More than % per cent of Californin's
deciduous fruits are sold by the Cali
fornia Fruit exchange alone. Sixty
FIVE per cent of the peach crop in the
state of Georgia travels the co-opera-
tive road to market. Sixty per cent
of the a n berries of western
Oregon. one-fourth of New York's
grapes, 35 per cent of CALIFORNIA;
pears and a good share of its berries
- bondIad O-oDaratiyply
The past year u per cent of the
cotton crop was marketed through the
cotton pools. In Texas, where % per
cent of the nations crop is grown, II
per cent of the state's acreage is