The L'Anse sentinel., 1924-01-25
Local Live Stock Shipping
Associations

ming day for the local shipping asso-
ciation and farmers had been busy
since five o'clock getting their hogs
loaded into the empty car that stood
on the siding. The early morning
freight would be due any minute now.
'How many you shipping today,
Frank?r Tim Gordon asked as he and
his neIghbor, Frank Watson, leaned
over the white-washed fence OF the
yards, smoking as they watched the
loading.
"Only had one more ready. Sent
three last week."
"Great idea this cooperative ship
ping association. Shipping them out
one or two at time just as they fat
ten up, beats the old plan Of having
to walt until there's whole carload
ready
81 like having our commission COM
pany down at the central market" and
Frank knocked the ashes from his
pipe. at takes lot Of worry on
fellows mind to know that there Is
someone down there to look after our
sales; someone that knows how to
do It."
Other trucks drove up. some with
one hog and some with two. Each
hog was weighed and listed, then load
ed with the rest into the waiting car.
The freight puffed in. 1t puffed out
again taking with 1t the producers car
of hogs and Sam Johnson, who Is paid
to look after the shipments until they
are safely In the care Of the Produc-
ers' Commission association Mt the
stock yards.
Awaited Their Checks.
The farmers at Ida Grove stood
along the siding and watched the
freight pull out Their part in the
shipping was done. All that was left
for them to do was to indorse their
check when 1t arrived. This Is the
cooperative way Of taking hogs to
market.
Twenty-Five per cent Of all the live
stock sold on the terminal markets Is
handled. through cooperative shipping
Four thousand farm
have organized associa-
Of the one at Ida
Grove.
For fifty years farmers have been
with cooperative ship
ping. But up until 1915 not more than
one carload in 10000 Of the live stock
of the nation travelled the cooperative
road to market. Today 65 per cent Of
the live stock shipments at St. Paul
are cooperative. Cooperative ship
ments at Chicago total about 30 per
cent-hah or more Of the hogs and IL
to Is per cent of the cattle. II Is esti-
mated that cooperative shipments
make up 20 to % per cent Of the stock
on the East st. Louis and Sioux City
markets At Kansas City, ST Joseph
and Omaha the average Is around 10
per cent. On the Buffalo market the
share Of cooperative shipments In
creased from 17.S per cent in 1919 to
29.3 per cent In 1921.
II was in 1872 that the Grange
started the first cooperative live stock
shipping movement. In less than two
years several hundred associations
were organized in Iowa. Missouri. Ne
braska and Illinois. These associa-
tions were generally mere shipping
agencies. The were distinctly Grange
movements and when the spirit Of the
Grange began to fade the shipping as
seciation movement died. But II was
born again.
The next time II cropped out was
down In Tennessee in 1877. A group
of sheep men around Geodlettsville
formed the Goodlettsville Lamb club,
an agency which graded and pooled
lambs and wool and sold at an auc-
ton. II the bids were poor the prod
ucts were shipped to the central mar
ket. This organization was q success
and II still continues to operate.
The Society Of Equity.
In the SOS the Farmers Alliance
began organizing live stock shippins
associations in Kansas Nebraska'
Iowh and Mississippi When the ALI
ance began dabbling In politics around
1890 It's various commercial enterprises
disappeared. That was the end OF the
most Of the shipping associations until
around 1904. when the Society OF
Equity began the york Of organisation
During the following decade many as
sociations were started throughout the
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