The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-08-02

managed and owned by city mechanics. In
England there is one promising agricultural
society" the Agricultural and Horticultural
Association Limited ~ but its growth has
been comparatively slow, and 1t lis The only
organization Of the sort In Great Britain.
Foreign experience, therefore. furnishes few
facts 10 proof Of the possibility OF ec0 opera.
ton among American farmers. a..
The efforts OF the latter In this direction
have not hitherto, we believe. been a sue
cess. The exceptions but; confirm the rule.
Farmers apparently cannot combine to buy
goods with advantage. The story OF the at
tempt OF ssae. setsof Illinois farmers TO do
this will illustrate the difficulties to be over
come. We tell the tale as IL was told to us.
Our informant 10 prominent member of the
Patrons Of Husbandry, whose name, were
we to mention 1t, would be recognized as
that of an authority. TIE grange to which be
belonged decided to do some cooperative
buying. An order was sent to Chicago for
some flour, sugar. tobacco, etc. When the
goods arrived this man had tc lose balf a
day and work bis team by going
down to the station aud carrying
the articles to his house. Then q scale
had to be borro we'd from the yillsge store
keeper whom the grange was trying to do
away With. Weighing out the sugar, wrap
ping and tying II up, etc., took number of
valuable hours. The inevitable shortage
C sine into the account, too. The upshot Of
the whole matter was that the farmers lost
good deal Of time, took good deal of trou-
bic, and paid about IS more than they would
have had to pay if they had bought in the
ordinary way. They found 1t disadvanta.
geous, 100, TO buy through the grange pur-
chasing agent. If a man wished TO get q
new plough, for instance, he could go to q
store, select ore from half dozen different
varieties, and have the privilege of txchaDg-
ing if 1t did not suit him. If bought through
the agent he had to order without seeing u
selection Of ploughs, and had to keep the one
be got, no matter how unsuitable it proved
to be. In the old way the risk was some
body eIse's; in the new way the risk was
his. The general decline of cooperation
among the oranges may fairly be attributed
to the recurrence Of such experiences as
these. The truth is that while dis
tributiVe cooperation can be MADE
success among artisans, it is of doubt
full practicabilty among farmers. The
latter can more readily sell than buy in uni
SOD. The California grangers are under
stood 10 have made some extra profit by ship
ping their own grain to Europe, but of this
we are not sure. The plan of al interna-
tional exchange of wares between the Ameri-
can Patrons of Hssbapdry and the English
operators seems feasible, provided the de-
tails are we'll managed, but we doubt whether
distributiye co 2eration can be carried on to
advantage on small scale among our widely.
scattered and self.dependent agricultural
population. This judgment does not I'M
pugn the value or the feasibility of tbe co.
operative principle. This has made many
millions of EngishmeD, Germans, and ltali-
ans happy. But the first conditions OF It's
success seem to be dense population and
the willingness 10 place implicit faith in and
render implicit obedience to the managers
elected By and from the members. These
conditions do not exist in the case Of the
isolated and thoroughly independent west
ern farmer.