The Sauk Centre herald., 1912-06-20
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Cooperation for
Iiare Population.
BY c. r. BARNS, Extension
Division, Minnesota Univer.
SitY Earn.
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Almost everywhere in Minnesota the
organization and development of CO.
operative enterprises, now winning
such general recognition as essentia,
to the highest prosperity of rural com
munities, is hindered by the sparse.
ness of the population and the long
distances separating the homes of the
people. Cooperation spreads most
rapidly and is most effective in secur-
ing results, where the number is large
of those who may share in it's benefits.
MANY lifting hands make burdens
light" and make achievement easily
possible; while in thinly settled COM
munities it is often diff cult. The COM
parative density of European popula-
tions accounts in large measure for
the greater progress which co-opera.
tion-the most democratic of move
ments-has made in monarchial courr
tries than in democratic America.
1t would seem, then, that one of the
most advantageous forms which CO.
operation can take in Minnesota is in
united effort among the farmers in
every county to fill up the idle or half
cultivated areas with agricultural i'm
migrants. Very few of our 160-acre
farms-and Minnesota farms average
! more than 160 acres each-are more
than half cultivated; that is, cultivat-
ed for the best results under modern
methods. If every owner of such a
farm would concentrate his efforts on
| making eighty acres do its BEST" the
aggregate production of our state
would be larger than it is today, and
the farmers would save labor while
! making more money. That there are
some exceptionally able men, who can
the average man can handle eighty
acres, does not disprove the assertion.
1t being conceded, then, that as a
rnle the cultivator needs no more than
eighty acres to secure an income as
good or better than he now gets from
100 acres, why should not all the
| farmers in a county join hands to dis
pose of eighty acres each to colonies
of skilled agriculturists from Europe?
! Or, since a county is a pretty large
area to cover with a new cooperative
movement, suppose the farmers of a
township only should begin it. Most
of the immigrants coming to our
shores have been accustomed to
farms" of from three to ten acres
each. Several such, with their fam
lilies, could be accommodated with a
much larger area on each of the spare
eighty-acre tracts of the farmers en-
tering into the cooperation. AS an
ordinary township contains IA 100
acre farms, by making room on each
i of these for even two more families, OF
say five persons each, the population
ct the township would be increased
by the addition of LAO souls. With
the IA farmers families already oc-
cupying the land the total population
would approximate 2,160 souls. APP
ply the same process to an entire
county, say of sixteen townships, and
it would be given a farming popula-
ton of about 34.560.
BY such an increase the value of the
farm lands would be lifted to from
500 to $50 per acre. The selling off
of eighty acres from each farm would
not only enrich the owner by the rise
IN value; but would induce rapid
improvement in agricultural methods,
and in the size and selling value of
the crops and live stock produced.
For labor, now deficient, would be
comparatively abundant; and, best OF
all. the cooperative movements. which
cow languish for want of population,
would have abundant support in their
work for the general uplift.