AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN CANADA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 10

AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN CANADA.

The agricultural year 1915-1916 was exceptional in Canada in the three aspects of the high yield, the quality of the crops, and the high selling price of grain. These favourable conditions have allowed the three great co-operative organistaions of the western provinces to develop their interior activity, to realise enormous profits, and, to gain an enormous amount of support m agricultural circles. In the whole world there is nothing comparable to these three organisations—the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company, the Grain-growers' Grain Company in Manitoba, and the Alberta .Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Company. They include at the present moment more than 48,000 shareholders; the total sum of their assets exceeds 8,000,000d01, and their paid-up capital in shares is about 2,000,C00d01. Last year 90,000,000 bushels of grain, or about a third of the total quantity produced in Canada for the market, passed through their hands. Their profits are represented by hundreds of thousands of dollars The Manitoba Company realised last year a profit of 775,0C0d01. the Saskatchewan Company one of 757.000d01, the Alberta Company one of 282,000d01. Their combined profits amounted therefore to 1,814,000d01. The three companies now own or work more than 500 local elevators. Including the buildings now in course of construction, they dispose, or will do so shortly, of a storage capacity of more than five million bushels. It is fair to note that the development of agricultural organisation in the Prairie provinces is largely due to the perseverance and the sane commercial and financial methods shown in the management of the Manitoba Grain-growers' Grain Company. These wcro the best means of advancing the cause of union and co-operation among the farmers-.

It ie also apposite to recall that these companies enjoy no special privileges. They compete with the purely commercial companies, and the tariffs they apply to the handling of grain are fixed either bj r the Canadian Grain Commission or bv the Winnipeg Corn Exchange, control them. Their activity and their success are, therefore, the more remarkable, and are proof of the excellency of their methods. The figures representing profits which we have given are far from affording an accurate idea of the advantages which farmers derive from this organisation. _ The departments for co-operative provision, which allow a farmer to procure the products and other foods he needs almost at cost price without the intervention of middlemen, mean an enormous economy to farms. Wood. wire, coal, rope, acrricultural machines, and topis are thus provided to their members by the companies in increasing quantities. The Manitoba Company has even bought vast extents of forest land in order to command the timber needed by its members, which it cuts down and markets itself. The sale of agricultural products other than grain by these companies ie becoming increasingly important.

It is therefore not surprising that tha report of the Manitoba Company concludes With a very promising forecast: "If the shareholders and those whom they have placed in charge of the respective companies' business remain true to the principle and ideal which brought them into existence, they cannot fail to increase in the right direction their power and influence wi-i 10 . OOl P mor c ia l life of Western Canada. While it is always dangerous to enter the realm of prophecy, it is not too much to expect that within tho next 10 Years the farmers of Western Canada will bo operating their own sawmills and their own flour, mills, possibly their own coal mines and meat-packing plants, and may be caring for their own fidelity and firo insurance." The decision taken at the respective general meetings of tho Manitoba Graingrowers' Grain Company and the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company to merge themselves into a single company which will be known as the United Graingrowers, represents a fresh step towards the unification of agricultural organisation and co-operative action. The new combination will have a capital in shares of 5,000,000d01. The_ eventual aim seems to be the concentration in one organisation of all the three great companies of Western Canada; but hitherto tho Saskatchewan Company has not considered the question of merging itself in the other two. —(From tho International Review of Agricultural Economics, published by tho International Institute of Agriculture, Rome, March, 1917.)