Farmers Organizations

FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS. In the United States these organizations have grown to greater dimensions than in any other country, although they do not as yet occupy the place of supreme importance in agriculture that co-operation occupies in some other countries; for instance, Denmark. For similar organizations in other agricultural countries the articles thereon should be con sulted. See also AGRICULTURE ; AGRICULTURAL ARTICLES ; AGRI CULTURAL CO-OPERATION ; AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES AND SHOWS; MARKETING.

The organizations in the United States may be grouped roughly as educational organizations, improvement associations and co operative business enterprises. In the first of these groups are the organizations which are engaged chiefly in educational work or in carrying out programmes for the betterment of the farmers' social or economic conditions or both. The second group of organizations includes those which the farmer has evolved to aid him in producing better crops and animals, such as seed-improve ment associations and organizations for the exchange of informa tion regarding cultural practices for crops; associations for im proving the various strains of animals and for keeping registra tion records; cow-testing associations; and the calf and pig clubs. The largest of the groups consists of associations which the farmer has set up to assist him in handling his business transac tions. This group includes more than 10,000 co-operative market ing associations, about 1,000 collective purchasing associations, about 2,000 mutual-insurance companies of various kinds and a large number of associations that furnish on a co-operative basis telephone service, electric current for light and power, water for irrigation purposes and transportation at cost.

Principal Organizations.--General

farmers' organizations include the Grange, or Patrons of Husbandry, the Farmers' Edu cational and Co-operative Union of America, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Board of Farm Organizations and many others formed on practically a country-wide basis. For details of these organizations, see the articles dealing with them.

Marketing.--The

organization of farmers for business pur poses has been mainly in the field of co-operative marketing. The most reliable estimates place the total annual business of co operative marketing associations at about $2,500,000,000. This business is conducted by approximately 12,000 associations.

The first nation-wide survey of the extent of co-operation among farmers was begun in 1913. Data for the years 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1915 were collected and tabulated. The most complete information was secured for the year 1915. Reports were received from 5,424 co-operative associations with an estimated member ship of 651,186 and an estimated volume of business amounting to $635,838,684. The largest volume of business, $289,689,200, was credited to the farmers' grain elevators. Fruit and vegetable associations with $201,542,600 were second, and associations marketing dairy products were third with $89,061,300. The sec ond survey was made in connection with the taking of the 1919 census. Sales through farmers' marketing organizations at this time were reported as $721,983,639, and 511,383 farms reported sales through such organizations. At the same time 329,449 farms reported purchases totalling $84,615,669 through farmers' buying associations. The third survey was undertaken by the U.S. de partment of agriculture in 1921. Reports had been received from 10,500 associations up to 1925, and it is on these reports that the estimate of total business, already given, is based. The interesting feature of these figures as compared with those given for 1915 is the increase in the amount of business done by cotton and livestock marketing associations. In fact, large-scale co-operation in the South has developed entirely since 1920.

Local Associations.--In

January, 1926, there were approxi mately 11,500 active local co-operative associations—independent organizations and units of federations—whose members were for the most part limited to farmers using the same shipping point. The local association is the earliest form of co-operation among farmers in the United States. It performs, as a rule, the services of a country dealer. Fruit and vegetables are assembled, packed and stored by local associations; milk is manufactured into butter and cheese; grain is bought; live stock is assembled and shipped and supplies are purchased and distributed by this type of or ganization. In most instances such an association handles only one commodity or a group of related commodities, such as several vegetables, or butter and eggs. Approximately 9,500 of the local associations operate independently. They sell their products to local dealers or through commission merchants in the terminal markets. In some cases they employ the services of private dis tributing firms, or more rarely sell direct to wholesalers.

Large-scale Associations.

About 2,000 local organizations, however, are member units of federations formed for the purpose of performing the selling services which the small independent local associations cannot handle to the best advantage. The federation is an organization in which the local units are the members and own the stock of the organization, if it is incorpo rated with capital stock. More than 450 creameries in Minnesota, for example, have affiliated to form a federation to sell the butter manufactured by them. Two hundred local citrus-packing associa tions in California sell their products through a co-operative central agency which they own and control. In this manner the group of local units is adequately represented in the markets at a reasonable cost. Approximately 5o federations were in opera tion in 1925. The annual sales aggregated $400,000,000, and more than 220,000 farmers were members of the local units that af filiated to form these federations.

A third type of co-operative organization is the centralized regional association. The first co-operative organization of this type was formed in 1912. Since 1920, associations for the mar keting of tobacco, cotton, fluid milk and dried fruit have been formed according to the centralized plan. A centralized regional association usually extends over a large area, frequently an en tire State, or a producing region including portions of several States. It combines the functions of the independent local as sociation and the federation. All members affiliate directly with the organization. It owns the local warehouses and other neces sary local facilities, and performs the local functions of assem bling. storing, grading or processing the product in addition to the marketing functions of distributing and selling. About 75 associa tions of this kind have been formed. Their total sales in 1925 were approximately $600,000,000. It will be noted, therefore, that approximately one-third of the co-operative marketing business was carried on in 1925 by 125 centralized regional and federated regional organizations. Sales agencies for the co-operative han dling of live stock have been established at 19 of the terminal markets. During 1927 these agencies received live stock which sold for more than $267,000,000. Co-operative terminal market agencies have also been formed in a few markets for the sale of grain.

Capper-Volstead Act.

The rapid growth of large-scale co operative organizations, which began in 1920, created a demand for State laws providing for the incorporation of the co-operative associations. In 1927, 47 of the States had laws permitting co operative organizations to incorporate, with or without capital stock, and to incorporate in their articles of incorporation and by-laws provisions that would ensure the co-operative nature of the enterprises. Many of these laws also define the status of co operative associations with reference to State anti-trust laws. In 1922 Congress enacted the Capper-Volstead Act which, in ef fect, sets forth the right of producers of agricultural products to act together in associations, and prescribes certain conditions which organizations of agricultural producers must meet in order to be considered co-operative for the purposes of the act. The second section of the Capper-Volstead Act provides that the secretary of agriculture may take steps to prevent the undue en hancement of prices of agricultural products by co-operative organizations.

Co-operative Marketing

educational and service work with farmers' co-operative associations became a specific Government activity through the Co-operative Marketing Act, approved July 2, 1926. The act provided for the establish ment of the division of co-operative marketing in the bureau of agricultural economics, department of agriculture, and for en largement of the department's research, educational and service work relating to co-operative marketing of agricultural products, co-operative purchasing of farm supplies, and other co-operative activities among farmers.

The steady growth of co-operative marketing among farmers in the United States indicates that it has become established as a permanent method of marketing farm products. Since 1924 the development of new co-operative enterprises has been compara tively slow. More effort is being directed toward strengthening existing organizations and introducing more efficient methods of marketing farm products.

J. Buck, The Granger Movement (1913) ; O. M. Kile, The Farm Bureau Movement (1921) ; R. B. Forrester, Report upon Large-scale Co-operative Marketing in the United States of America (British Ministry of Agriculture, 1925) ; American Co-opera tion (1925, 1926, 1927) ; H. Israel and B. Y. Landis, Handbook of Rural Social Resources (1926) ; E. G. Nourse, The Legal Status of Agricultural Co-operation (1927). Also the following publications of the department of agriculture, Washington, D.C.: Technical Bulletin No. 4o, Agricultural Co-operative Associations, Marketing and Pur chasing (1925) ; Department Bulletin No. 1,106, Legal Phases of Co-operation (1923) ; Membership Statistics for Large-scale Marketing Organizations (1926). (W. M. J.)