Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-07
CHAINS OF FARMS
AID TOPROSPER|TY
Texas AgricuIturist Leaders
in Movement-C0sts Are
Being Cut.

pecial Dispatch to The Star

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, January IA farmer
may catch a weasel asleep, but nobody
nowadays has much chance to catch
the farmer asleep. He has seen the
growth and prosperity of the chain
systems and already has adopted the
business policy to his own activities.
In Texas, the growth of farm chains
has been phenomenal and has only
started and progress Is being watched
by up-to-date men in agriculture in all
other parts OF the country.
The Texas chain farmers have band
ed together, not only to aid each other
in the disposition of their products, but
to cut costs by collective buying and
operation. They have put into effect \
centralized and consolidated system of
using them in rotation as the localities
demanded This was done on the Sin
gleton Farm, in Hills County: the Bra
EOS River plantations and the Luling
and Trinity County farms.
Farmers Stick Together.
1t has been asserted by opponents of
the cooperative systems that farmers
could not be induced to stick together,
but this has proved untrue in the case
of the Canadian grain growers and has
been diScredited for nearly 80 years by
the operations of the lions Cooperative
Mercantile Institution in Salt Lake City.
The lions Cooperative Mercantile In
stitution was started as mercantile
and agricultural cooperative institution
under the auspices of Brigham Young
at a time when there was no currency
in Utah and when barter and exchange
replaced the passing of coin and checks
It grew into one Of the Oldest and best
department stores in America and re-
mains a leader in its territory today,
still backed and supported by farmer
and merchant cooperation.
Although there are widespread COM
plants in the farming districts of the
Northwest concerning the prices of
grains, particularly wheat, the agricul-
tural situation there is the best since
the war, according to the Minnesota
commissioners of agriculture, N. j.
Holmberg. This is due In no small part
to the development of cooperative
dairying One such organization, the
Land O'Lakes Creameries, did a $50
100000 business In IL months of 1928,
as compared with $46,000,00O for all of
1927. Car load shipments replaced the
old broken lots and every pound was
made to come up to the association
standard.
Live stock feeders in the territory
have combined likewise and consequent
ly the farmers no longer depend so
thoroughly on grain crops. Despite
this, the nine principal grain crops
brought in $272, 095 200, a gain of So
$4,000. In North Dakota, where wheat
was emphasized, there was a drop of
$23, 100000 in returns. Potatoes were
so plentiful that many were just plow-
ed under as fertilizer.
Holding for the Spring.
Many farmers are holding wheat in
bins on their farms in the hopes of
better prices next Spring. They can do
this since they have been fortified by
a prosperous year. Deposits in country
banks in the Northwest are the highest
in history, averaging $500, 900 per bank
In Minnesota, North and South Dakota
Montana and parts of Wisconsin and
Michigan. There have been few bank
failures and many consultations, so
that there are fewer but stronger banks.
Sales of farm lands have not been
particularly active and 1t Is obvious that
values have not cotton back to the levels
touched in the postwar boom, but there
has been a wide improvement in both
demand and price in the last year. The
farms on which banks were forced to
foreclose during the depression are
gradually passing into the hands of
dirt farmers again. The banks of the
Northwest now have approximately ST.
256, SOC 900 on deposit.