90 AGRICULTURE OF MAINK. 



consumer was forced to pay, led the farmers and fruit men to 

 combine, which resulted in a wave of cooperation sweeping 

 over this country. 



There is need, however, of interesting more than the farmers 

 in this movement, for prosperity in farming means national 

 prosperity. Cooperation in Europe where farmers buy to- 

 gether, sell together, borrow or lend together, own machinery 

 together, and, in some cases, actually carry on a farm together, 

 has reached a higher development than this country ; there being 

 25,000 cooperative societies in Germany alone, and the present 

 strength of her armies, in the field, is made possible only by 

 her agricultural strength. Cooperation in this country has 

 reached a much higher development in the West than in the 

 East. In the West the growers of citrus fruit have so perfected 

 their organizations that their business is done at a minimum 

 expense, and large sums are being expended, annually, to ad- 

 vertise their products. 



Our farmers had long felt the need of assistance in marke*^- 

 ing the products of their farms and buying their supplies, and, 

 with the example before them of the success of the large com- 

 mercial enterprises which were incorporated for the protection 

 and advancement of their business interests, cooperation 

 seemed the hope of the future and the logical way for the 

 farmers of Maine, by acting together, to secure a larger por- 

 tion of the consumers' dollar. The years 191 1 and 1912 saw 

 the birth of the Farmers' Union in Maine. The third Union 

 was incorporated at Dexter, this Union shipping about one- 

 third of the total amount of potatoes marketed by all the 

 Unions that season. The work of organizing the farmers has 

 gone on until, to date, there have been eighty-six Farmers' 

 Unions organized in the state. 



We also have an efficient organization for the marketing of 

 fruit, known as the Maine Fruit Growers' Exchange, composed 

 of thirteen branch organizations, located throughout the central 

 and western parts of the state, and under the capable manage- 

 ment of E. E. Conant of Buckfield. It has been aptly stated 

 that "Men may fail, but cooperation does not fail," and many 

 cooperative efforts have proven barren of the best results, 

 owing to the lack of capable management. 



