84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Our iincestors were practical coiiperators, they had their chopping- 

 bees, their pihng-bees, tiieir liouse and l)arn raisings, they cooi)erated 

 in making their clearings, in building the block-houses and forts, 

 in defence and offence toward Indian enemies, in their hunting, their 

 fishing, their seeding and their harvestings and later in their huskings 

 and apple-bees. Necessity made them cooperators. Some of the 

 practices of these ''good old times*' have come dovvn to our day; 

 what we need is to revive their practice of working together, modernized 

 and adapted to our times and our surroundings. 



As time passed on, the country became settled, the earl}' dangers 

 and hardships passed away and people began to feel and act and 

 live and operate more independently. Bye and bye it came to be a 

 game of life and the smartest player won the game. Selfishness grew 

 like a thrifty weed. Then came meanness and dishonesty here and 

 there, and distrust of our fellow-man. These are all opposite to 

 and the death of cooperation. As a rule now, it is everyone for 

 himself and the sharper, the speculator, the middleman for us all. 

 Is there not a better way ? 



If there is an}' class that needs to work together it is the farmers. 

 It needs no array of facts, or of figures, or of arguments to prove 

 this. Every one of us has had painful practical experience that has 

 taught us this fact and burned it in upon heart and brain as with a 

 hot iron. If we know anything we have come to know this, and 

 no man taketh away that knowledge. 



The first thing necessar} toward cooperation, then, we have — that 

 is the belief. Next, we want faith ; and this both in ourselves and 

 in our brother farmers. Tlien we want action, we want securit3% 

 and we want perseverance. All these will be made plain and prac- 

 tical with careful consideration and judicious efforts. 



A Kemp's manure spreader would do all the work required in its 

 line on a half dozen farms. Perhaps not one of these half-dozen 

 farmers feels able, or is actually able to prudently incur the expense 

 of buying a spreader alone. Divided among the six the expense to 

 each would be $20, instead of $120 for one. A threshing machine 

 and wood sawing machine would cost about $300. Ten farmers that 

 raise two hundred bushels each of grain, pay out to the travelling 

 threshing machine, at 6 cents per bushel, an aggregate of 8120 an- 

 nually. Three 3'ears' service of the machine would save them its 

 cost and $60 over, to sa}' nothing of the amount saved in sawing 

 wood, cutting ensilage or hay and straw, and possibly in grinding 



