Excerpts: Farmers have long recognized the advantage of exchanging help as a means of securing larger crews than the farm affords. The plan of organizing definite thrashing rings or circles, which guarantee those inside the club the amount of help they need, has been tried in different sections of the Corn Belt during the last decade or more. At the same time, cooperative ownership and management of thrashing machinery has been tried with more or less success in many communities. To learn the facts concerning ring ownership and management of thrashing machines as a scheme for saving labor and money, and to determine the present status of the movement, the writer visited several ring officers in the Middle West to secure first-hand information. Then letters were sent to manufacturers of thrashing machinery, requesting the addresses of ring secretaries who had bought outfits. In this way, over 700 names of ring members were secured, representing all the States of the Middle West. Some of the rings dated back 14 years, but most of them were organized within the last few years. A questionnaire was sent to 300 of these men, calling for information concerning their experience. Most of the 80 replies received came from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Iowa, where the results of this investigation are applicable.