230 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



SHALL THE PRODUCERS ORGANIZE. 



R. L Cum MINGS, West Paris. 



(Stenographic report.) 



I am to speak on the question, "Should Producers-Organize?" 

 I don't suppose that really needs an answer because if a man 

 stops to think for a moment he reahzes that ever since the days 

 when men first went out to accompHsh anything, the success of 

 their enterprise has depended upon their proper organization; 

 and this is true now more than ever before. What success 

 would Mr. Bradford have in his business if he did not have it 

 thoroughly organized? He would have failed long ago. The 

 trouble in my farming — and I have farmed twenty-five years — 

 is that the farm lacks organization. Every industry, every 

 workman who is getting wages for a decent living in this coun- 

 try, is controlled by some organization, and if it were other- 

 wise, the industry would fail and the workman would not get 

 his living. We as farmers have been preached to so long that 

 we are "independent farmers," we have got where we believe 

 it. We think if there is any class in the world that is inde- 

 pendent, it is the farmers. U these figures on the wall are true, 

 however, the trouble must be one of two things ; either we are 

 so stupid we can't succeed or we are not properly organized. 

 Which is it? This falling off in the cattle seems to be but one 

 of the many changes that have come to our rural communities. 

 How many school children are there now in the districts where 

 we used to go to school? W^hen we went to school the districts 

 would average 26 children right through the winter ; now there 

 is an average of three, and in many cases two and three dis- 

 tricts are combined and then the school is not as large as one 

 of our old district schools. There is a large decrease in the 

 farming population. Now, as I said, we are either stupid or 

 there is something wrong with our business. The trouble is, 

 it requires too many hours of labor to make good on the farm ; 



