The Raymer enterprise., 1923-08-30
SUCCESSFUL FARM
ERS MOVEMENTS
By BRUCE IAlRsox

By BRUCE LAlPS0N
NOTE: In this article. the third Of
a series Of eight. Mr.. Lampson, who II
manager Of the Colorado Wheat
Growers association, points out the
fundamental cause for failure In some
of the so-called "cooperatives."
It takes only few croakers to
make lot Of noise.
A farmer once walked. up to hotel
keeper and asked him II he would
buy two car loads Of frogs legs.
1.-TWO car loads!" exclaimed the
man. II couldn't use them in twenty
years"
well then. 20 or so bushelsi"
mo"
1.-TWO dozen?"
YES"
A few days later the man brought
In three pairs of legs. "You see
live next to the pond" explained the
farmer. by the croaking heard I
thought there were q million frogs.
When drained the pond. I found
there were only three"
Something Of the same kind might
be discovered II we could sift down
the croaking that is sometimes heard
regarding the failure Of cooperative
enterprises.
1t may be true that the field Of
farmers activities 10 dotted with
gravestones Of cooperative associa-
tions that have failed, and the pes
simistic person. In looking over the
records Of these ventures may be JUS
titled In doing little croaking.
But II the pessimistic farmer were
to examine the headstones Of these
deAnct cooperatives . little more
carefully, he would discover that all
of those that have failed, have COM
mon characteristic. He Will find
that the dead cooperative organisa-
tions were usually either consumer
cooperatives. or Organizations that
combined cooperative marketing with
cooperative buying, or merchan ndising
Of some other sort.
In other words. they were not ex-
clucively cooperative marketing or
ganizations.
The success of exclusively market.
ing associations can be seen in the
history Of the California fruit asso-
Citations; the tobacco raisers' associa-
tions, and the wheat growers Of the
Pacific coast. The tobacco growers
OF the south have made $4,000, 900
In the last two years that they
wouldn't have made. II they had no
Not that the pathway Of coopera-
tive marketing has been entirely of
roses. These associations have not
reached the hight Of their success In
one year, or two. But the average
Colorado farmer fails to realize that
cooperative marketing Of agricultur-
al products has been going on in some
for more than century,
and that It has been going on In
for twenty years.
II is in these experimental sta
tions Of cooperative marketing in
Denmark and California that the
rules for successful cooperative mar
keting have been worked out; the
rules that exery farmer everywhere
can now use for his own good.
In another article Of this series I
intend to outline some Of the early
experiments In cooperation. In the
article will only outline the funda-
mental rules Of cooperative market
Ing as they have been worked out In
twenty years Of experiments. They
speak for themselves.
l. One association can success
fully market but one commodity.
3. Members must be signed up by
q binding contract over . number
Of years.
5. The commodity must be mar
keted-not dumped. There u no
speculation In orderly marketing.
1. The organisation must be con-
trolled by the growers. and II must
not be q profit organization.
These four rules are the basis Of
successful marketing. No organise
tion that has lived up to all Of them
have failed. They are the rules that
are the basis for prosperity on the
farm.
NEXT WEEK: The "Ovsr- Pro-
duction" Bugaboo.
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