Il6 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of the individual and the Maine Pomological Society in con- 

 nection with this subject of co-operation. If associate effort 

 were some new fangled notion there would be a good excuse for 

 going slow and waiting a few more years to see how it works.' 

 But we have the records for decade after decade where farmers 

 have combined their interests to advantage. Their experiences 

 are an open book to us and we can stand on their shoulders 

 from the start, thus having a wider range of vision and avoid- 

 ing the pitfalls and dangers incident to the line of march. 



A fundamental factor of business is that the large producer 

 is the one who usually enjoys greater profits. Our manu- 

 facturers may not make a large amount of money on a single 

 yard of cloth but in many thousands of yards they reap their 

 profit. Buying in quantities you get a reduction. The same 

 is true with shipping. This is as true in horticulture as in mak- 

 ing calico cloth. Our friend Hale of Connecticut who handles 

 thousands of baskets of peaches and does everything on a big 

 scale has distinct advantages over the small grower. Presum- 

 ably, we cannot all be peach kings, or apple kings, but we can 

 combine among ourselves and pool our interests so that the 

 aggregate will approximate an interesting total. This is what 

 a co-operative association would do. I know no reason why 

 such a society could not buy trees in large quantities at 25 to 

 50% discount, obtain fertilizers, packing barrels or boxes, spray- 

 ing mixtures, provide for co-operative spraying, etc. 



Furthermore, with a manager who is interested in making a 

 success of the association, the trend of the market in various 

 cities would be closely watched and the society members would 

 know by wire the very latest conditions that effect their inter- 

 ests. For the individual with comparatively small output all 

 this might not be practicable, but for an association it would 

 become one of the first requisites. Then again, suppose an oily 

 tongued individual with patent leather shoes and boiled shirt puts 

 in his appearance at the time of harvest and presents his card 

 as Mr. Catchem, representing the firm (if Catchem and Skinem, 

 wanting to buy fruit. Is there any harm if through the 

 researches of this association you know this man and are able 

 to tell him, "Yes, I have heard of you. You were out in west- 

 ern New York and bought apples of farmers and never paid 

 for them." If you were consigning apples to New York would 



