REPORT OF STATE HORTICULTURIST. 69 



is now taking place and we see the extraordinary spectacle of 

 men in one part of a county receiving $2 per barrel for apples, 

 while in the next township apples are being allowed to rot under 

 the trees. The old order is passing away and the new is not yet 

 thoroughly established. 



At the present time the small grower, in neighborhoods where 

 orcharding is not a special feature, would appear to have 

 received a setback. A little more experience will show these 

 small growers that it is quite possible, even in districts where 

 apples are not a specialty, to organize cooperative selling asso- 

 ciations so as to dispose of the fruit without difficulty and at a 

 fair profit. It must be admitted that of late years the small 

 orchard, as an adjunct to the farm, has not been remunerative. 

 All attempts at growing four, five or half a dozen trees, which 

 would be sufficient to supply the needs of the home, have failed ; 

 the trees are not numerous enough to receive proper care in the 

 busy life of the ordinary mixed farm, and very quickly succumb 

 to general neglect. Apparently the smallest area that can be 

 recommended in general practice is five acres, and there is no 

 reason why, with cooperative methods, there should not be a 

 five-acre orchard on every farm in the apple districts. This 

 would not interfere seriously with the larger interests of the 

 farm, and yet would be sufficient to make it worth while to 

 secure proper implements, spray at the right time and pay some 

 attention to marketing. With the passing of these small or- 

 chards would go many of the pleasant recollections of farm life. 

 The old orchard is the memory that lingers longest and links 

 us most closely with the land. It would be worth while, merely 

 as a partial solution of the depopulation problem, to institute 

 a propaganda for a five-acre orchard on every farm. 



The fact that the independent Canadian evolution of coop- 

 eration does not differ materially in methods from cooperation 

 as practiced in the older lands, should inspire confidence in 

 Canadians to accept more readily the teachings of pioneers in 

 this system of conducting trade. Everyone who aspires to be 

 useful in a cooperative way should acquaint himself with the 

 history of cooperation in the older lands. Particularly valuable 

 is the history of cooperation in Germany and Denmark, but 

 scarcely less so are the recent developments in agricultural coop- 

 eration in Ireland under the leadership of Sir Horace Plunkett. 



