The First Fifty Years : A History Of The United Grain Growers

Hardcover, 309 pages, 8x5.5 in - 22x13 cm, illustrated with line drawings and b/w photographs. Illustrations by Clarence Tillenius.

Backstrip torn along the front gutter, binding rubbed and worn along the edges, previous owners name and address handwritten on the front endpaper.

In this volume, former editor of Winnipeg’s “Grain Growers’ Guide” (now “Country Guide”) R. D. Colquette chronicles United Grain Growers Limited’s rise as a co-operative. He outlines the monopolies that characterized grain shipping/marketing on the Canadian prairies in the early 1900s – and resultant provincial efforts to organize grain marketing co-operatives – as a prelude to United Grain Growers’ creation in 1917. The volume then chronicles the figures, events, and decisions that grew the co-operative into a force on the international grain market. Colquette also highlights the impact of major social and economic changes on United Grain Growers, including the Great Depression and WWI/WWII. Throughout, he emphasizes the organization’s ingenuity and commitment to farmers.