The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1911-01-14
COOPERATION IS THE BEST
American Farmer Is Slow - Appre.
ciate Value of Principle as APP
piled to Agriculture.


preciate cooperation as applied to
farm work, and he cannot grasp 1t at
all unless he is imbued with an al
truistic spirit, disposition to help
his neighbors as well as himself, and
thus fulfill the Golden Rule, says q
writer in the Homestead.
Until comparatively recent years
the farmer has been obliged to depend
on himself. All through the last cen
tury he has made his living by muscu-
lar labor and his wealth by the ad-
vance in the price of land where the
land was good@ His isolation has
compelled him to rely largely on him
self and has made him what the sci
entists call an indiyidualist, man
who relies on his own unaided
strength and resources The time is
coming, however, when cooperation
becomes quite as necessary as indi-
vidual effort has been heretofore.
We are not advocating what is
usually called cooperation in buying
and selling, in operating creameries,
in disposing Of live stock, but minor
or lesser forms Of neighborhood as
sistance in farm operations.
II farmers are to succeed, or even
to enjoy themselves on the farm, they
should learn to work to each others
hands as they have never done be-
fore; and we venture to indicate sew
eral lines in which cooperation will
not only be mutually helpful in a
financial way, but vastly improve SO
cial conditions as well.
The purchase of farm machinery,
which the shortage Of labor absolute
" requires, Is becoming very heavy
burden on the eighty acre and quarter
section farm. Farming cannot be done
now as it was a half century ago
with a plow or two, one harrow,
wagon, a horse-rake, a cradle and
scythe. A hay-loader, a corn harvest
er, a binder, two or three different
kinds Of plows, harrows and rollers
are needed.
The silo has come into general use,
and silage cutter and some kind of
power to run it is required. A ma
nure spreader and grain drill are
needed whether the farm is a forty.
an eighty, a quarter-section, a half
section or q section. Now there is no
necessity for any one man owning al
these tools. By little planning two
farmers, or perhaps three, can use one
corn harvester, one silage cutter and
power, and by combining labor can
I'LL their silos at minimum expense;
or where silage is not used they can
own a corn shredder In the same
way.
Even on the quarter-section farm
there Is no need for every man to own
a grain drill With a little manage
ment one grain drill will do the work
on three, four or half a dozen farms.
It can usually be arranged for one
man to buy the drill and the rest to
pay a. stated acreage for the use of
1t. The same is true of the manure
spreader, although we think every
farmer really ought to have one for
himself
There is no need for farmers wait.
ing till the whole neighborhood gets
ready TO thrash; for three or four
farmers can buy a small thrashing
outfit, stack their grain, thrash it
themselves and greatly promote the
peace Of mind and the comfort for
the wives who make their homes
Ravens of rest and peace.
There is no need of farmers along
q straight road to town having bad
roads, except, perhaps, for short
period in the spring. If they will
simply agree to bring pressure to
bear upon the supervisors to put that
road in order, and then agree among
themselves that they will drag it after
every rain and every thaw there will
be no difficulty about getting to town
In comfort ten or eleven months of
the year.
Farmers greatly aid each other by
coming to an understanding as to the
kind Of cattle they are keeping, espe-
cially il they are engaged in dairy
ing, and by agreeing with each other
as to the purchase of sires, will be
able to keep the good ones, sires of
proven merit, in the community, to
the great benefit of every individual
farmer.
Farmers can cooperate with each
other In putting up their ice for sum
mer use, for an icehouse is neces-
sity on every farm. These are simple
examples Of practical cooperation that
will be common whenever farmers
come to realize that their own profit,
as well as their personal comfort, de-
Ponds upon cooperating, or working
to each Others hands for mutual
benefit.
Not the least of the benefits &C
cruing from cooperation will be
better understanding of each other,
closer social relations between fani-
lies of the right sort, and the weed
Ing out of the selfish and undesirable
citizens unless they mend their ways.
In other words, there will be a de-
of the farm spirit and a
standard Of living, moral and social,
that will make the unworthy unWel-
come and Ill at ease in the com