o had fathered the
Grain Growers' Grain Company and who already had located T. A. Crerar,
of Russell, Manitoba.

Out of Dunning's suggestion at Prince Albert grew the Saskatchewan Hail
Insurance Commission which was recommended to the Provincial Government
by the Association in 1911 and brought into operation the following
year. The legislation provided for municipal co-operative hail
insurance on the principle of a provincial tax made operative by local
option. Twenty-five or more rural municipalities having agreed to join
to insure against hail the crops within the municipalities, authority
would be granted to collect a special tax--not to exceed four cents per
acre--on all land in the municipalities concerned. Administration
would be in the hands of the Hail Insurance Commission, which would set
the rate of the special tax. All claims and expenses would be paid
from the pooled fund and all crops in the respective municipalities
would be insured automatically. If damage by hail occurred insurance
would be paid at the rate of five dollars per acre when crop was
destroyed completely and _pro rata_ if only partially destroyed. This
co-operative insurance scheme was instituted successfully in the fall
of 1912, soon spread throughout Saskatchewan and was destined
eventually to carry more than twenty-five million dollars of hail
insurance.

Shortly after the launching of co-operative hail insurance the
discussions among the Saskatchewan farmers in regard to the
co-operative purchasing of farm commodities for their own use came to a
head in a request to the Provincial Government for the widening of
charter powers in order that the Association might organize a
co-operative trading department. In 1913 authorization to act as a
marketing and purchasing agent for registered co-operative associations
was granted and next year the privilege was extended to include local
grain growers' associations.

Thus the Trading Department of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers'
Association takes the form of a Central Office, or wholesale body,
through which all the Locals can act collectively in dealing with
miners, millers, manufacturers, etc. The Central sells to organized
Locals only, they in turn selling to their members. The surplus
earnings of the Central are distributed to the Locals which have
invested capital in their Central, such distribution being made in
proportion to the amount of business done with the Central by the
r