114 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Farmers' Protective Association has secured certain advantages 

 for farmers who ship milk to the Portland market. You need 

 not be reminded of the work in Aroostook county that is being 

 done by the Houlton grange. What about your co-operative 

 associations for testing cows and learning whether a cow eats 

 more than she produces or whether she produces more than she 

 eats. Is not that work likely to result in something worth 

 while? 



All of these instances both in and out of New England indicate 

 what some of the possibilities really are in the line of associated 

 effort along farming lines. Dozens of equally successful enter- 

 prises could be cited did time permit. But as members of a 

 Pomological Society you are especially interested in what can 

 be done along horticultural lines. So far as I am informed, 

 with one or two exceptions it is impossible to find in New Eng- 

 land any co-operative fruit growers' exchange that is really 

 doing anything worth while. Fruit growers in Grand Isle 

 county, Vt., are co-operating in a small degree and enterprising 

 growers here in Maine in the vicinity of Turner are endeavoring 

 to get things started. This is good as far as it goes but we 

 want more of it. These dairy farmers who are succeeding so 

 well in co-operative enterprises are no brighter than are fruit 

 growers though it does look as though they were more enter- 

 prising. Go into the files of the agricultural journals in your 

 State and I dare say you will find that 20 years ago fruit 

 growers were talking co-operation and telling how nice it would 

 be if they only had some good exchange in operation. Year 

 after year the same authorities will show that this subject of 

 co-operation has been talked up one side and down the other, 

 and yet how much farther on the road are we to actual results 

 than 20 years ago? 



This is not said in a criticizing way, but rather in a business 

 way, for it is only by recognizing the facts, however cold they 

 may be, that we are likely to reach a satisfactory conclusion. 

 All of the discussion has been very proper and I am glad it was 

 provided for. But unless a start is made, will it not be another 

 20 years before we actually accomplish results? We as New 

 Englanders are conservative folks, and I do not urge fruit 

 growers to launch unreservedly into something they know noth- 

 ing about. But there is no magic in this matter of co-operation. 



