STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II3 



ciations on the Pacific coast and in the south, and heaving a 

 sigh, we declare how nice it would be if such things were only 

 possible among us. 



Without going into a long discussion of what some active 

 co-operative associations are doing, it may be well to mention 

 in a word a few of the typical societies that are saving farmers 

 thousands of dollars annually through associated effort. You 

 have heard of the Ozark Fruit Growers' Association at Spring- 

 field, Mo., that handles 600 carloads of .strawberries in a season, 

 and 1000 carloads of peaches, to say nothing of apples. Then 

 there is the Penninsula produce exchange with headquarters at 

 Pocomoke City, Md., which in a single season handles 200,000 

 packages of melons and potatoes. So successful has this 

 exchange been that shipments have increased 60% within a year. 

 There is the Long Island Cauliflower Growers' Association, 

 doing business at such towns as Southhold, Peconic, and River- 

 head. In 1906 they handled 130,000 barrels of cauliflower. In 

 Iowa and Nebraska there are at least 175 farmers' elevators 

 which do a mammoth business. One elevator in Buffalo county, 

 Neb., handled a business in 18 months of 500.000 bushels and 

 returned farmers 21-2 cents more per bushel for grain than 

 would have been provided except for their associated efforts. 

 This meant better than $12,000 saved to farmers of that county 

 alone. Another farmers' elevator at Nevada, la., the very first 

 year handled 130,000 bushels oats, 120,000 bushels com, 1600 

 tons coal, 11,000 pounds binder twine, and 45 tons of oil meal 

 and feed. In this work better than $10,000 was saved for those 

 farmers, and you will remember that a dollar saved is a dollar 

 earned. 



As good as these stories sound, they are not too good to be 

 true. They have numerous duplicates throughout the country 

 and here in New England we have yet to realize the full signifi- 

 cance of the possibilities that follow genuine co-operative effort. 

 Our milk producers appear to be more aggresive in this line 

 than do fruit growers. The farmers' organization now known 

 as the Boston Co-operative Milk Producers' Company, which 

 has the handling of the milk reaching the Boston market from 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Con- 

 necticut, has saved farmers many thousands of dollars at a 

 minimum expenditure. Right here in Maine, I believe your 



