Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-02-13
COOPERATIVE FARMING.

The first part Of making farming pay, that
Of raising good aud bountiful crops, farmers,
as class, understand we'll enough, and il
they did not there are thousands Of politi.
clans and lawyers officers and office seekers
who are constantly telling US how to do it.
In the second part Of their pursuits, howev.
er, in the commercial and strictly business
matter, farmers are generally lacking in the
necessary knowledge and experience, and it
is not as easy. either to tell how to supply
this deficiency. Some will advise to give
the boys mercantile education before they
are to take charge of the farm but, unfor-
tunately, too often in such cases it will be a
long time before they change their CONNER
cal career for farming, generally not be-
fore they have accumulated money in some
other business, and oitener, never Others
will favor thorough course of training,
practical aud theoretical, at our agricultural
colleges as the best method of making sue.
cessful farmers. Nothing seems more ra.
tlonal, and yet the practical results Of these
institutions do not as yet come up to expec-
tatOns. No one respects aud esteems knowl.
edge and science more than | do, and far be
it from my intention to undcrvalue the i'm.
portance of scientific institutions for the pro.
motion Of agricultural knowledge, but prac-
tical farmers, such as make farming pay bet
ter than others, they have as yet turned ont
but exceedingly seldom.
You will say, if all these means fail, how
then are We to make farming pay2 and |
confess to be at loss to tell that gray-hair.
ed farmer yonder, this bright young man,
full of vigor, just beginning lifes battle with
his young bride as his bel pmate, nor any Of
you singly, nor myself even, how to make
farming pay better. But can tell you and
my neighbors together-how an entire set
Element, how a whole community, small or
large, can make farming pay, and that is by
conducting our business as the successful
manufacturer, the successful tradesmau, and
the successful merchant conducts his-by
dividing labor and uniting capital by co5p.
Grafton.
Farmers, this is no wild, fantastic scheme
no fancy Of Imagination. The letters are
written in gold on the azure sky of the hori.
ION, As soon might roWboat try to COM
pete with a steamer in crossing the Atlantic,
or a stage line with railroad in carrying
passengers aud freight, as the farmer, single.
handed, with the immense and powerful
combination Of other industries. Some be.
ginning toward this end has already been
made. We have cooperative cheese facto-
ries; we have thrcshing and other machines
owned by associations; large districts of
swamp lands have been drained and brought
under cultivation by united capital but all
this is only very small beginning and what
cooperation in farming will accomplish in
the future We can as yet not have the faint.
est conception, much less can any one attempt
to plan a schedule for such combination with
anything like probable success. Undoubt-
eddy many failures and losses have to be
suffered before success can be attained. B ut
as the change from the work with the hand.
loom in the dilapidatod hut to the operations
Of a steam cotton mi Of hundred thousand