The Harrison times., 1911-07-01
MORE PRACTICAL IN FUTURE
DEVELOPMENT Of Modern Machinery
Renders It Necessary for Farmers
to Learn Cooperation.

In the future farmers will have to
learn more practical cooperation than
they have ever practiced in the past,
and that for several reasons. The
farmer is intensely individualistic. His
previous training has made him so.
He has depended on his own right
arm so long that he has become quite
! Independent of his neighbors.
The development Of modern ma
! chinery renders it necessary for farm
| ers to learn to cooperate. For ex-
ample, as we have pointed out be-
! fore, a lone farmer in building silo
necessarily goes to heavy expense
not only in the construction Of the
silo, but in the purchase Of silage ma.
chinery, especially the power and cut
! ter. Now a cutter will do for two
farmers just as well as for one, or for
| three, If they will plan their corn so
as to continue the cutting period over
| two or three weeks.
Farmers would do well to cooper
ate in buying a small threshing out
fit rather than depend on the large
outfit, while their grain may be spoil
ing In the shock. There must be CO.
operation in this line among the farm
ers in the neighborhood. They should
either all thresh out of the shock or
all stack, for the reason that the large
machine coming in wants to clean
up the whole neighborhood at once,
which cannot be done If It is partly
shocked and partly going through the
sweat In the stack.
Western farmers have been quite
successful in cooperating in the way
Of manufacturing butter and cheese.
They have found by experience that
1t is better to have a creamery or
cheese factory in which the milk can
be worked up into the desired product
comparatively, thus saving labor to
the women folks and paving the way
to a uniform brand of high market
value.
They have been able to cooperate in
the establishment of canning factories
and some upto-date farmers have
co-operated In selling their eggs,
stamping them with the name OF the
farmer and the date, having them
gathered up twice a week. and then
stamped again at the Office with the
company brand They are thus able
to supply strictly fresh eggs to the
grocery or general store In the nearest
town, or for that matter in the dis.
tant city This kind of cooperation
ought to put at least three cents a
dozen on the eggs, perhaps small
matter to the individual farmer, but
big item t. the community.
The greatest success the farmers
have made in cooperating is in the
marketing Of their grain. This is es-
pecially true in the sections largely
given over to grain growing. They
have established cooperative elevators
in great numbers in northern Iowa and
central and southern Illinois. We see
it reported that at recent meeting OF
the Illinois Farm Elevator association
there were 500 delegates, representing
1870 out of the $50 farmers elevators
in the state.
Farmers have not been so success.
full in cooperating in buying as in CO.
operating in selling, although a num-
Der Of the cooperative elevators
buy comparatively such things as salt,
coal, lumber, and in some sections fer.
tilizers. In one sense this is fine
beginning, a very large beginning, and
yet after all 1t is only a beginning,
The necessities Of the farm will com.
pei cooperation to much greater eX.
tent in the future than in the past.
Perhaps nothing but necessity will
drive farmers to It. 1t was necessity
that compelled the western fruit peo-
pie to cooperate. Otherwise they
were at the mercy of the shipping as
sociations and railroads
Therefore, we say we are lust at
the beginning Of cooperation among
farmers, and the sooner it comes, the
better. BY and by we shall learn to
cooperate in buying as we'll as in sell.
ing, and thus eliminate much Of the
cost of distribution in the cities, which
perhaps does more than anything else
to prevent the farmer from getting a
fair return for his labor,
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