Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-12
Miseellameous..
FARMERS CLUBS.

FARMERS CLUBS. "e4
The Farmers Club has now come to be one Of the
established institutions of the State Of Maine, and
the fact argues we'll for the future. Now that many
of these primary assemblages may soon suspend
operations until the crops of another year have
been mainly garnered in, and among them the crops
Of experience which another growing season will
furnish, we propose to offer few suggestions re-
garding the best methods of cultivatng and har-
vesting this last named crop, which can easily be
made very valuable one. ,.ss.
Before adjourping over the Club for the period Of
short evenings and busy days, make careful plans,
look over the broad field of subjects, select those
most nearly concerning your own affairs, look over
the materials which compose the Club, and assign
to each member that subject upon which he is best
able to observe, investigate and experiment, and
has the sharpest appetite for. Of course you are
aware that man always sees best what his eye is
trained to see While looking in the same direc-
ton, an artist will see only landscape and geol-
ogist will see only rocks. Let every one have his
share in the summers work, to be reported upon
next autumn for the benefit of the whole. 1t would
be well for him to note down in little book what
!
what he fails to learn that be needs to know; and
do this every evening if he can, or at least once
week; when the seed goes in, how IL is cultivated
and manured. what its progress is, what bugs come
and what helps go, and all the ms and outs con-
cernng each crop, and the herd and the Hock. So
can you store up facts, and an amount of them
which will be really astonishing at the harvest
next fall-and facts always better than guesses
to report to the Club. Farmers Clubs may also be
useful in ways little thought of as yet. We are
only just beginning to learn the use of helping one
another. We know what happened in olden time,
when "they helped every one his neighbor; and
every one said to his brother, Be Of good cour-
age" Everything was done up trig and tight,
and go it may be now. A Kennebecker, now edit
ing agricultural paper in Vermont, discourseth
after the following fashion in regard to t4
FARMERS CLUBS AS COOPERATIVE INSTITUTIONS.
last week we spoke of Farmers Clubs as . means
of mutual improvement in agricultural knowledge.
But this is not to be their only to the farmers
of the country We wish, briefly, now to point out
some other advantages which may be gained by
Farmers Clubs when properly organized-the men,
bers working heartily together, and neighboring
Clubs cooperating when needful.
'Farmers, heretofore have, until recently, shown
but little disposition to unite for the purpose Of
carrying out measures for their mutual advantage,
either in a business a practical way. The con-
sequence has been that, although the farmers ac-
tually constitute great majority Of the people,
and possess large if not the largest, share Of the
national wealth, they yet defrauded Of great
proportion of their rightful gains by the trading
class, and controlled to their disadvantage BY
professional politicians. ss . ess8 es -rssf
'sWe know that combinations are by no means
ha md
All their most profitable lines Of business are made
SO by combination and practical monopoly which
they know the advantages Of SO well, and which
they work so hard to maintain and strengthen on
every side. We do not object to this. Traders and
transportation companies have q right TO combine.
Their combinations net necessarily injurious to
the community. They are, indeed, in . great de-
gree, necessary and useful. But when all who buy
Of the farmer are united to large profits at
his expense when the railroads combine to keep up
freights, when manufacturers combine to secure
heavy government aid and high prices through
patents and protective tariffs shall the farmers re-
main ununited, unresisting, without help or pro-
tectiony 70 sstti'I fss'fsE5
''We believe, nay, we know by experience, that
through a well conducted organization, such rs
Farmers Clabs can be made, great deal may be
done to better prices for produce, procure
better rates of transportation, and TO obtain every
thing that the farmer needs to buy at lower prices
and of better quality. Already has this been
done to some extent in various parts Of the coun-
try, and wherever it has been attempted it has
worked well. We may say that farmers, when they
have attempted it, have shown great aptitude for
combination, and that in almost every instance
their experiments in this direction have succeeded
perhaps the most remarkable, the most exten-
sive and the most universally successful experiment
in cooperative manufacturing that the world has
seen has been carried through by farmers. We
refer to the cheese factories that have revolutonized
the dairy business of the nation and bid fair by
example, to revolutionize it everywhere. By their
means American cheese has not only secured foot
ing in European markets, it has actually begun to
supplant the famous English cheese in the markets
of England herself. The alarm is sounded in the
English dairies, and the remedy prescribed is the
adoption of the American system of cheese making
''Now these factories are simply Farmers Clubs
devoted to making and selling cheese. Butter fac
tories are identical in their working. Wool Grow
ers Associations are but Farmers Clubs devoted TO
the wool interest; Milk Producers, Fruit Growers,
Bee Keepers, and all similar societies are the same,
and it may be said that, if not in every case sue
cessful, they have generally shown larger average
Of success, and more real efficiency, than the 60
operative work of any other class.
SIN regard to transportation, whenever the farm
ers have, as a body, requested an adjustment of
freight tariffs favorable to their interests, the rail-
road companies have shown disposition to com-
ply. At the recent meeting Of the Massachusetts,
Board of Agriculture, Capt John b. Moore Of Con-
cord, said that the Farmers Club Of that town had
by contract with the railroad company, secured
the transportation of packages Of freight not larger
than a barrel, strawberry crate, to Faneuil Hall
Market and the return of the empty barrel or crate
at cost of twenty-five cents each; and this by
every passenger train stopping at Concord The
company thought at first they could not permit the
of passenger trains, but upon calculation they
found the weight thus carried and space occupied
paid better than the carrying Of passengers. Here
is case where advantages were gained not only to
the farmers, but to the railroad, through the saga
cious action of Farmers Club. The instances
where this can be done ara innumerable, but they
can only be brought out by means Of united action
on the part Of those most interested.
"In regard to purchases by cooperative action,
every rejecting man can see the benefit thst might
accrue. Suppose that in one neighborhood, with
an active Club, there wanted next spring twsn-
! ty-fve plows, ten mowers, half dosen tsddsrs.
ten tons of plaster and twenty tons Of mpsrphos-
] II, LII