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CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING THE
HOPE OF THE GEORGIA FARMER
Under the above heading of
what has been done in one Geor
gia county we are reproducing for
the benefit and that our Henry
county farmers may profit there
by the below article clipped from
the Georgia Marwet Bulletin pub
lished by the State Department of
Agriculture.
Since the boll weevil has reduc
ed the production of cotton to
practically one-fifth of tiie amount
heretofore raised it behooves our
farmers merchants and bankers
to look into and thoroughly in
vestigate the advisability of build
ing here at McDonough a grain
elevator for the purposes more
fully described in the article quot
ed below: Our information is that
an elevator can be built for an
amount not exceeding fifteen
thousand dollars that will meet
every requirment for the whole
of Henay county and as we under
stand would include a complete
corn and wheat milling outfit for
the purpose of handling meal and
four in car load lots.
It is the consensus of opinion by
some of the best farmers in Geor
gia that taking the extra costs in
cluding labor and fertilizer that
the raising of cotton is a losing
proposition under the present
circumstances and in fact the only
money now coming into the
hands of the merchants of Dublin
is that which comes through the
farmer’s sales of corn, wheat, oats
and the like that have been plac
ed in marketable condition by the
co-operative elevator of the city
of dublin.
We print the article with the
hope that our farmers, merchants
and bankers, as stated above, will
give the matter their serious con
sideration remembering that Henry
couny is an integral part of the
State of Georgia, where the most
of us were born, and will still be
inhabited by some of us whether
in a prosperous condition or not,
so why not do our part to contin
ue the prosperity she has always
enjoyed, by giving to the produc
ers, the man upon whom we all
depend for a living, such an oppor
tunity as the citizens of Laurens
county enioys.
There is one community in Geor
gia that has made long strides to
wards co-operatiye marketing of
diversified farm products. The
farmers themselves havig come to
gether in an organization looking
toward the marketing of the pro
ducts that they produced under
boll weevil-conditions.
In Laurens county, Georgia,
about four years ago, almost
eighteen months in advance of the
arrival of the boll weevil, there
was a man who l : ved in this com
munity farsightedness has proven
a blessing to his community for he
took the lead and led farmer neigh
bor to a successful marketing plan.
This movement was not herald
ed with great newspaper head
lines but it was a quiet and solemn
meeting of about fifteen men who
had come together for the purpose
of trying to do something in ad
vance of the boll weevil. The
Farmers Co-operative Association
of Laurens county was organized
with a capital stock of $5,000.
Their object in having a capital
was to furnish a place where the
farmers ot the community could
bring their diversified farm, pro
ducts and sell them at the market
price and receive cash for their
products. They realize that the
one crop system of cotton must
go, andjas a result of their investi
gatiomlhev found that a country
grain Elevator would furnish more
cash markets for more diversifi
ed farm rod acts than any other
-.-» ■*-
one f ciiitv that.could be placed
in a community; so then the pro
cess of building was gone into, all
parties concerned having an in
tense desire to build the very best
and most modern elevator south
of Mason and Dixon line.
It was decided to build an ele
vator with a storage capacity of
■ ift\ thousand bushels of grain at
one time. Contractors were got
in touch with, and the* contracts
let. And today they have a plant
located at Dublin, Ga., Laurens
! county, where the fa-mers of the
county can bring the following
products and have them handled
in the manner outlined below:
Method of Handling
A farmen drives np on the scales
at the office, with a load of corn,
velvet beans, peas, peanuts, oats,
1r : ' other easy flowing grains, and
|hns his wagon- weighed. If he
lms corn, then he drive straight
into the elevator building whore
lie drives onto a wagon dump his
hind gate is taken from the wagon,
a lever puiied and the front end of
his wagon is raised and the back
end lowered until the rear end
hits the floor and the corn still in
the shuck as it comes from the
field Dasses from there, by gravity
into a bin below. Now, mind you,
the farmers does not touch his
products to unload them. They
are handled by gravity, and a
thirty bushel load of corn in the
shuck can be unloaded in about
one minute aud a half. Then the
corn passes from the bin below
by gravity into a corn shuck-shell
er machine, where it is shucked
and shelled at one operation. It
is then conveyed into the top of
| the elevator where it passes auto
matically into a shuck separator.
There the shucks are passed into
the shuck house, the cobs deliv
ered to a seperate place and is
then passed by gravity into a
cleaner sitting directly below the
separator. This machine is the
one that means so much to the
handling of grain, for it (the clean
er)has the same relation to the
grain or diversified crops of this
kind that a gin and a compass
does to cotton; it is the means of
putting the products into mer
chantable shape; it takes out the
cob ends, the weevils, the weevil
eaten grains, silks, husks, and dirt,
and all foriegn matter, leaving the
corn free of unclean matter, and
puts it into merchantable shape
ready for grinding into meal for
human consumption or ready for
fppding. It is now passed by grav
ity from this machine into the dis
tributor and placed into the desired
bin, either for shipment or for
milling in the mill room without
further handling.
When ready for shipment, the
corn is taken from the bins by
gravity and passes back to the
top of the elevator where it is
passed into an automatic scales
that weighs accurately and swiftly,
having a capacity of 20 bushels
per minute and from this scale
it is automatically dumped into a
spout that conveys it directly
downward into the car. This is
done without any man power,
having a loading capacity of one
thousand bushels every fifty min
utes so a car containing one thous
and bushels of corn can be loaded,
sealed and ready to move in about
fifty-two minutes.
Velvet beans, peas and peanuts
can be handled the same way, and
just as economically. It is found
by actual experience that a bushel
of corn can be unloaded, shucked
and swelled and loaded into the
railroad car for about three and
one-half cents, the same relatively
low costs applying to other grains,
Last season this plant, operat-
HENRY COUNTY WEEKLY, McDONOUGH. GEORGIA
ing its first full season, h indlcd
60.000 bushels of corn, about 7 -
500,000 pounds of velvet be .ns,
about thirty cars of peanuts, ' .
eral cars of peas, and various oth ;•
products consisting of syrup v i
oats, and also found ready sale
for all the shucks coining from the
corn.
Plan of Op .'ration
The result of their operations
and their plan of following is as
follows: Tiiey pay their stock
holders, who numbers over 600
farmers in the county, ei .lit per
cent interests on their investment
—of course after the operating
expenses are paid—and their force
consists of three men, a manager,
a weigher, who is a combination
book-keeper, and one negro to
operate the elevator, who handles
all the products brought to the
plant. Therefore their overhead
■expenses are at a minimum, as
compared to other plants of jike
investment; and llien, after payit g
the eight per cent on capi'al i* -
vested, all the remaining profiN
are divided among the stockhold
ers according to their pair mage
of the plant and not in proportion
to the amount of mm: y they
have invested in the as cjaoon.
And the result is, that tod y
they own 56 6-10 acres of valua
ble industrial property v iihin the
city limits of Dublin, are worth
easily $25,000, and have a plant
that stands second to none in
equipment and with every modern
facility available for the economi
cal handling of the farmers' diver
sified products.
The indication is that they will
handle this season about three
.*M ftLT
L OILERS
Itr* /
IL a
tinms the voiurrm handled last
S' *> ~ File g ood done to the
community cumoi be estimated
h ”'d;y in dollars, and the stimu
i ■> : ;>i eduction ii is been won*
dm fu , which fudy conveys and
nr ves the theory that where
proper markets and facilities are
are furnished that there naturally
follows production by leaps and
bounds.
Move.amt Spreading
As a result of this co-operative
m ivemeni, other communi ies are
taking on the same spirit, and al
ready a modern phut of e instruc
tion has bee i built and d i ig won
derful service at Waynesbora,
Burke county, Georgia. The good
cannot be estim ited, and the praise
is almost unanimous by the par
ticipating farmers.
State Bureau of Muskets Aiding This
Wonderful Development
The director of the State Bureau
of Markets, realizing the impor
tance and nece sity of this great
movement, has set his forces
squarely behind it, and as a result
<>f the activities of the State Bur
eau Markets, marketing facilities
of organiz ition at Forsyth, Mon
roe county, M mlicello, Jasper
county, Jackspn, Butts county,
Tnibotton, Talbot county, and also
at Lawrenceville, Gwinnett coun
ty and Miller,, Jenkins county.
And the movement is spreading
and it is conservatively estimated
that during the coining twelve
months'ttiaXsome twenty-five of
these marketing plants, with all
facilities, will be erected and plac
ed at the disposition of the farm
ers in various local communities
of Georgia. Then, with the com-
ing of better and mod *md facilities
on the coast for the handlln r of
Georgi i products for export,
Georgia will come into her own
not only as a producing state but
as a state and a people who pro
duce merchantable wav through
modern and economical facilities,
and the outcome is bound to re
v dnijouiz iim farming industry i l
Georgia.
CASTOR IA
For Infants and Children.
Srt ISse For Over 30 Years
Always bears mr
Signature of
FOR PROMPT
TAXI SERVICE.
rain or shine, the phone to
ring is number forty-nine
C. A. KNIGHT,
PHONE NO. 49.
MONEY to LOAN
Immediate funds on
improved farms. Low
est rates.
Five, seven or ten years.
For information, call
or write
E. M. SMITH,
McDonough, - - - Georgia
