.90 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 



had hoped. There were many difficulties and causes 

 of failure. One of these was that the producers con- 

 tinued to sell their first-class produce to established 

 dealers, and expected the association to take second- 

 class produce and give good prices, their notion 

 being that, as the association was started for the 

 benefit of the agriculturist, it ought to pay good prices 

 for whatever they chose to offer. They felt hurt 

 when their supplies were rejected, and still more so 

 when the local agent started on his educational work 

 of teaching them what they ought to do. That 

 attitude is extremely common among agriculturists, 

 particularly small ones, and it points, I think, directly 

 to an essential condition of successful co-operation: 

 that you cannot start co-operation by making the 

 organization independently of the actual producer 

 and then asking him to come into it. You must start 

 with your operations based on the desire of the pro- 

 ducer to make his business more profitable; you must 

 secure his interest in the first place. He must put 

 his own time, energy, produce, and money into it, 

 and must elect his own officers. The organization 

 started from outside, however enthusiastic its pro- 

 moters may be to increase the produce of the country, 

 is not likely to be successful ; it is not the right way 

 to begin. This does not mean that there is no room 

 for propaganda and for people who are enthusiastic 

 to bring before the actual producer the advantages of 

 co-operation, to tell him the history of experiments, 

 to suggest the right methods of organization, and so 

 on. There is much room for propaganda and educa- 

 tional work; but, so far as I know, there has not been 

 a really successful association started except at the 

 desire of the producers themselves, actuated by their 

 own wish to dispose of their produce to the greatest 

 advantage. That is the bed-rock on which co- 



