222 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



July 14, 1917. 



CO-OPERATION AMONG PLANTERS. 



There are few, if any, more important activities on the 

 part of mankind than cooperation. There are some forms 

 cf activity where individual effort is best, and, in fact, is all 

 that is needed, but most of our activities are greatly helped 

 by combined activity on the part of the persons interested in 

 a given line of work. The reason that a company or business 

 concern succeeds, is because it is composed of a group of men, 

 consciously working toward some definite end. By developing 

 the proper system of co-operation it is possible for a commu- 

 nity or group of communities to achieve much more than 

 ■would be possible, were each member working independently. 



Co-operation is mure than merely a method of doing 

 business. It is, &•> is explained, in the Extension Bulletin 

 No. 1 of the Hmnaii Agricultural Experiment Station, a 

 principle, a motive, an incentive for human action, which, if 

 adopted by the community, will make it more united and 

 more prosperous. Before, however, a co operative idea can 

 be manifested in the business of a community, it must first 

 of all work itself into the lives of the individuals of that com- 

 munity. It is important, therefore, to keep on cultivating 

 the habit of working together for some common end or ends, 

 «ocial or commercial. Some co-operative activities are much 

 more readily carried out than others. Co-operative bu.-iiness 

 enterprises are usually difficult to keep running smoothly 

 at all times, for they frequently curtail individual freedom of 

 action along business lines, a condition which is often irksome 

 to individuals long accustomed to untrammelled freedom of 

 individual activity. For this reason such co-operative busi- 

 ness ventures as to prove successful are those which are 

 called into being to meet some very evident need, and from 

 the first are of such apparent benefit as to survive the early 

 critical period of their existence. The idea which underlies 

 the word 'co-operation' is that of working ivith one another 

 jor one another — of working each for all and all for each. 

 The benefits are founded on the old saying that 'in union 

 there is strength'. 



Increasing the British-Grown Wheat Sup- 

 ply. — It appears that a large amount of attention is 

 being devoted to the seed selection of wheat in the United 

 Kingdom, obviously with the idea of increasing the yield per 

 acre to the very highest [wssible degree. At C'ambridge. 

 wheats are bred with the object of providing for British soils 

 and climates, varieties which are likely to raise the already 

 high yields per acre of grain and straw obtained in that 

 countrj', and in all but abnormally bad seasons to provide 

 millers with the raw material from which flour can be obtained 

 in the highest degree suitable, primarily, for the requirements 

 of bread baker.s in the districts where the wheats are grown. 

 Results of great economic and technical importance are being 

 obtained. Thousands of selections are being tested .so that in 

 each season, and for .some year.^ to come, one or more varieties 

 may be issued at moderate prices to agriculturists. Such 

 ■wheats will be grown in all parts of the Kingdom, and in 

 due course each new variety will find its most suitable 

 environment. 



In the article in the Bulletin of the Imperial Ins'.itute 

 under notice, reference is made to the policy cf the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, in the matter 

 of directing attention to the necessity for cultivating crops 

 yielding substitutes for wheat flour in the West Indies. 



AGRICULTURE AND THE WAR. 



Although the entrance of the United States into the 

 war is, of course, too recent to expect extensive development* 

 and important results, attention may, however, be drawn to 

 the fact that the Federal Government has already organized 

 an interdepartmental committee to formulate a programme 

 for food production and conservation and has a number of 

 plans under consideration. Among these, as is announced 

 in the E.-'periment Station Jierord, for May 1917, Vol. 36, 

 No. 7, is a material expansion of the work of the Department 

 of Agriculture, enlarging its forces for co-operative demon- 

 stration work, home economies, the combating of destructive 

 pests, the utilization of methods for the preservation of perish- 

 able products, the safeguarding of .seed supplies for 1918, the 

 market news service, assisting in the labour problem, and 

 otherwise to stimulate production, improve distribution, and to 

 promote conservation of the food supply. The appointment 

 of a small number of agricultural leaders to give advice as 

 regards national problems, and the creation in each State of 

 a small central division of food production and conservation 

 composed of representatives of the various agricultural and 

 related interests, as well as the formation of county township, 

 or urban bodies of similar constitution to work in close co- 

 operation with the State central agency are also suggested. It is 

 estimated that approximately S'i5,000,000 will be required 

 to carry these plans into operation. Nor have our French 

 allies passed unheeded the lessons of the war which have so 

 clearly demonstrated the necessity for the establishment of 

 national laboratories of scientific research and institutions for 

 research in agriculture. A report of a special commission 

 presented to the French Academy of Science describes in 

 detail the experiment station system of the United States 

 which is highly commended. This .system is contrasted with 

 the stations and laboratories in France for which the Govern- 

 ment voted 339, 701 1 francs (about £14,000). The sum is 

 shown to be quite inadequate and to result in limiting the 

 field work and expensive investigations and in restricting 

 considerably the routine functions. At present the French 

 station is usually devoted to a single branch of industry. The 

 commission argues for fewer stations located in typical 

 agricultural areas and well organized to cover the various 

 phases of the industries, with specialists in each. It is also 

 suggested that the stations should seek the collaboration of 

 farmers, as the Danes have done in their experimental 

 work. What the commission regards as serious obstacles are 

 the comparative isolation of the station from one another and 

 their lack of central supervision. It advocates the appoint- 

 ment of a permanent superior council to guide and direct the 

 work of the stations, assure the proper u.se of the funds at 

 their disposal, provide for meetings of their personnel from 

 time to time, publish results of their work and abstracts of 

 material of interest appearing elsewhere, and otherwise 

 correlate and invite the scattered institutions into a national 

 system. The establishment of a well equipped central station 

 charged with work of a strictly scientific nature of interest to 

 the whole country, or of such scope and importance that it 

 could not be carried on to the best advantage at the district 

 stations is also favoured. 



In the St. Vincent Sentry of June 15, 1 .51 7, itisannounced 

 that a new steamship line between Philadelphia and the West 

 Indies has been established by the Philadelphia Shipping Co. 

 Under the plans that have been formed the vesse's, which fly 

 the American flag, will touch at Porto Eico, the Virgio. 

 Islands, the \\'indward and Leeward Islands, Trinidad and. 

 other West Indian and Central American ports. 



