Norwich bulletin., 1911-03-11

 1 tions of poultry keepers. There they form what are called s"circles," each circle including the farmers handy to a certain gathering station"-usually a farmhouse. The eggs are brought to these stations, from which a wagon 1 of the association, which is composed | of five circles collects them every l week. They are taken to a central point, where all are 'tcandled" and re- packed. Each circle elects one mem 1 Der of a governing committee which ] hires an expert agent to handle the eggs. AS in the Minnesota cases, each egg must be stamped so 1t can De | traced back to the farmer who brought 1 it in, and each case is guaranteed. The members agree to about a dozen rules: | They are not to bring in undersized nor ill shaped nor dirty eggs, nor eggs 1 from "found' nests, nor any eggs not l laid by their own hens; they are to | keep their eggs in a dry place and at as even a temperature as feasible, and 1 they ara to replace all bad eggs found. In these Canadian associations the | payment is always in cash, the price runs from two to seven cents dozen above ''the market" and the farmers can't supply all the eggs that are de- mandad of them, even at these higher l prices, which they themselves fix. These Canadian associations also ship dressed fowls, similarly guaranteed, and all dressed at the central station, so as to be uniform in quality and appearance. They find that this is even more profit able than cooperation in selling the eggs-and it saves all the dirty work of dressing fowls at the farm.
 Now, these are only cursorly gather ed facts from one single limited field of farm production. In all these cases the farmers sell their eggs to regular deal erS who retail them, charging the reg l ,I,r, S4,s1 If, as Secretary Wilson has suggested, the farmers selling organization had been met at the other end by con sumers' purchasing association, this re- tailers' profit might also have been eliminated, and the egg buyer have saved it for his own pocket. Such a combination would be almost ideal for in it the producer would get fair prices for his produce and the egg eater would get his breakfast at a consider able saving. It is all so simple and so easy. in theory, that one can't help wondering why it isn't universally practiced.
 When you seek to find the reason, however, you haven't far to go. You needn't stop as the little boy does with a. blank "becauSe"-. It's just be- cause we farmers are so cantankerous- ly and pugnacously independent" so waspfsh and "tetchy" so jealous and suspicious. Not all of us, thank heaven! Perhaps not even most of us. But too many of us. We're all so used to making our own rules and being our own bosses that we can't and won't stand for other bosses or for rules that others help make. So long as each one of us can have his own way in every thing. and all the time, we slide along as easy as wood- -shod sled on frozen grass. But when dozen farmers un- dertake to cooperate either in selling or buying every consarned one of the dozen has got to abide by some general rule or other which he doesn't wholly like. And they must work under some leader whom some of them are liable to disapprovc or impugn. Moreover, some of them will perhaps be inclined to- jealousy. They will be suspicious of the manager, suspicious of the com mittee in charge, suspicious of their neighbors. They will all the time be sniffing the air for some smell of fa- voritism. They will act as if they thought being critical showed their superior shrewdness. They will for ever be on the alert watching out lest someone else get the advantage of them.
 That's the way trouble begins. That's the sort of thing which makes cooperation impossible in some IocaIi- ties and with some neighbors. That's the sort of thing, which leads to nine cdl OL ltil OI tile failures WHICH occur in cooperative attempts.
 The question isn't whether co opera ton is the wise thing and the right thing. That question is answered as soon as it is asked. The real question
 rs whether men and women are wise enough and just enough and reasonable enough to be fit for cooperation with each other We're undertaking to run a government on just that plan And we certainly are making something of a mess at it. But we're improving-a little and in spots. Perhaps, by and by, we may get to that point where a majority of us farmers will cease to feel that Number One is of more ac- count than all the rest of the world When we all get so we can subordinate individual whim to the general welfare. why then we'll all cooperate, as matter of course, just as we blow be- fore we plant, and eat breakfast when it's ready.
 In the meantime, and until that time, a few of us have apparently got to keep on being, like John the Baptist, just voices crying in the wilderness.
 YyrT