DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE


 Although the typical purchasing cooperative continues
 to be a relatively small association of several hundred farm-
 ers operating in one or more counties, one of the most im-
 portant developments in agricultural cooperation during
 the past 10 years has been the growth of wholesale purchas-
 ing associations. There are large purchasing wholesales
 serving most of the Northern and Middle-Western States
 and some of the Southern and Western States.

 MANUFACTURING
 Cooperatives are manufacturing more farm supplies.
Ten years ago a few farmer cooperatives were selling their
own seed and mixing some feed and fertilizers. Today hun-
dreds of cooperatives are mixing feed. There are a dozen
or more cooperative fertilizer factories, five or six oil-
blending plants, a number of paint-manufacturing establish-
ments and a few associations which are manufacturing or
assembling farm machinery and other implements.

 With the increased use of power-driven machinery on
the farm, the growth of farmer-owned oil and gasoline
associations has been almost phenomenal. Over 1,050 farm-
ers' co-op filling stations m 26 States are pumping gasoline
and oil to their members as a principal business, and over
700 other associations are selling these and other petroleum
products as a side-line activity. Ten years ago there were
only a handful of such organizations. Today they dot the
agricultural map from Ohio to Montana and are moving
into Eastern and Pacific States

 FARM SERVICES
 Cooperatives are not only helping farmers do a better
job of marketing and purchasing but are also teaching their
members how to do a better job of farming.

 Agricultural cooperatives have brought the lessons of
science and chemistry to the farmer's doorstep. For years
the Grange-League-Federation and other cooperatives have