PRACTICAL CO-OPERATION. 87 



Railroads and corporations cooperate together ; operatives and la- 

 borers are cooperating together in their unions and organizations 

 and though the majority are yet outside of these cooperative bodies 

 the pressure is felt b}' ever3' branch of business. The only way to meet 

 and resist organization is by counter organization. Why not the 

 farmers? Why not the cultivators of the soil, who alone and singly 

 are a prey to more scheming than any other class or calling? This is 

 because the}* are the more numerous, are least sophisticated, as a 

 rule are made to compete with each other in both buying and selling ; 

 and because thej' have very little to do in making prices of what they 

 sell or of what they buy. 



Again, the time occupied in individual marketing is quite an item. 

 One of our neighbors reckons his time at two dollars per da}' whether 

 on or off his farm and makes his labor count him that. Another is 

 obliged to work at something else a part of the time to pa\' his bills. 

 These may be considered extremes, but suppose we call the farmer's 

 time one dollar per day — and this is too low — his single horse team 

 and expense one dollar and twenty-five cents per day. This makes 

 two dollars and twent3'-five cents for every day spent marketing. 

 We will suppose fifty days are spent during the 3'ear in buying and 

 selling and in travel, an item of some account, or $112.50 per an- 

 num. In the same neighborhood there may be six, eight or ten 

 farmers of which our example is an average, each doing their own 

 marketing and each competing against the other. If there are ten 

 on this basis there will be an aggregate expense to the ten of $1125.00 

 per 3'ear. Now, one man with a good two-horse team would do the 

 marketing for these ten farmers at less than half the cost, reducing 

 the competition from ten to one, and ver3' likel3' that one would be 

 the better saleGiiian cf the whole. This is not all. One man run- 

 ning a market team daih' would soon become known and depended 

 upon. He would soon be able to secure orders ahead, and from the 

 state and temper of the market would know just when to sell and 

 what to load with. He would be able to take advantage of the 

 demands of the market and this advantage would soon go some wa3's 

 toward paying his expenses. This sort of practical co-operation 

 would largely reduce the cost of selling our farm products. It is 

 laid down as an axiom that to make farming pay we must produce 

 the largest and best crops at smallest expense. We must cheapen 

 the cost of production. Now is it not equally correct to place side 

 by side of this — the crops must be marketed at the largest price 

 with the least expense? 



