HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '89, 1989-03-22, Page 27FARMING ‘89, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1989. B3.
UCO Belgrave marks 75 years of Co-operation
Milestone
19 14 meeting
changed
rural life
The Belgrave Co-op started 75 years ago with a number of farmers pooling
orders to get discounts for bulk buying. Today, along with its sister branch
in Auburn, the UCO outlet does $4 million business a year.
Seventy-five years after 300 farm
leaders met in Toronto to start a
quiet revolution in farming, both
the United Co-operatives of Ontario
and the Belgrave branch mark their
anniversaries in 1989.
Actually, the remarkable story
begins in October 1913 when four
Ontario farm leaders met in Toron
to to discuss the problems in
agriculture. E. C. Drury, W. C.
Good of Paris, Col. J. Z. Fraser of
Burford and J. J. Morrison of
Arthur decided that it was time that
farmers took action over complaints
about monopolies on farm supplies,
of combines in the salt industry,
unfair freight rates and more. They
called for a meeting of farm leaders
from across the province.
On March 19, 1914 the 300
leaders from agricultural groups
across the province met at Toron
to’s Labour Temple. When they
spread out across the province to
return to their homes the next day
the farm leaders took with them the
roots of a movement that would
change rural Ontario.
Two separate but unrelated
movements grew out of the meet
ing: the United Farmers of Ontario
(UFO) and the United Farmers
Co-operative Company (UFCC).
The UFO was to grow slowly
until after the end of World War I
when labour shortages, inflated
costs and general dissatisfaction
with the existing political parties
led it to get involved in politics.
With 50,000 members it had strong
grass-roots support and won a
surprising plurality in the 1919
provincial election with E. C. Drury
becoming Premier of the Province
of Ontario.
The party ruled until 1923 then
lost the election and faded as a
political force although it was
headed by the idealistic Agnes
McPhail, H. H. Hannam and
Leonard Harman during the
1930’s, organizing folk schools and
supporting the “Farmer’s Sun’’
and the “Rural Co-operator’’.
While it was the UFO that got
the early spotlight from that fa
mous 1914 meeting, it was to be the
UFCC that was to have the long
term impact. The co-operative
movement began when those farm
leaders returned to their communi
ties.
The roots of the Belgrave Co-op
erative go back even further than
the historic meeting. In the early
1900’s the provincial government
had encouraged Farmer’s Clubs in
rural communities, The Belgrave
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Farmer’s Clubs had been meeting
for social affairs for several years.
But in 1914 the Belgrave Club
joined in the co-operative move
ment with Robert Coultes Sr. as the
first President and Abram Procter
as secretary-treasurer.
The co-ops of the period served
as buying groups, drawing farmers
together to act as a unit in
purchasing farm supplies and sell
ing farm products. In 1917 the
Belgrave Co-op purchased a large
quantity of Paris Green, a pesticide
that killed the potato bug, until
then picked off plants by hand.
Other early group purchases
included sugar, salt, twine, lard by
the tubful, oranges, peaches, oat
meals, flour, general groceries,
seed grain, formalin, alsike, shin
gles, and wire. The co-ops pooled
the orders of all the farmers,
bought in large quantities to get
discounts, then sold the smaller
amounts to the individual farmers
at the low prices, eliminating the
profit of the middle man. The result
was a far cry to the co-ops of today.
The 1916 records of the Belgrave
Co-operative Association show
$3,163 went through the organiza
tion but the net between receipts
and expenditures was $1.60. By
contrast, the UCO Belgrave store
did nearly $3 million in sales and
the Auburn store did more than $1
million in 1988, showing $104,840
and $32,280 respectively on the
bottom line.
In 1921 there were 37 members
of the Belgrave group but the
membership dropped to 15 over the
next six years. By 1931 though,
membership had climbed back to
106. Currently membership at the
Belgrave-Auburn Sales and Service
Centre of United Co-operatives of
Ontario (UCO) stands at 567 with a
membership investment of
$170,240.
Unlike today, the early co-op had
no permanent home. Orders were
pooled, the merchandise ordered
and it was shipped into Belgrave on
the old London, Huron and Bruce
branch of the Grand Trunk Railway
(fondly nicknamed the Butter and
Eggs Special). When the shipment
arrived, farmers would travel to the
station, just east of Belgrave and
pay for their goods. Buying on
credit was unheard of at the time.
Having farmers pick up their
orders at the station saved the cost
of storage.
The social aspect of the co-op
was still a big factor in the early
days. Picnics were held in summer
Continued on page B4
Right, Co-op
in 1964.
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