8o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



cooperative buying and manufacturing of supplies, securing of 

 lower freight rates, more equitable refrigeration charges and 

 more efificient transportation service, the securing of more and 

 better labor and the general cultivation of a spirit of coopera- 

 tion and uplift in all community afifairs. Strange as it may seem, 

 there are many who prefer to ship their products to a distant 

 market, of which they know practically nothing, to be handled 

 by some firm of whom they know less, rather than to have 

 their property marketed by a competent manager of their own 

 selection. Farming communities cooperate to secure better 

 churches, better local government and better schools. If they 

 are willing to leave their religion, their politics and the education 

 of their children to cooperation, there certainly should be no 

 hesitation in leaving the marketing of their farm crops to a 

 cooperative system that has passed the experimental stage. 

 Cooperation is the act of working with others for the common 

 benefit. This means that all must work and all should share in 

 the benefits in proportion to the support given by each to the 

 enterprise. In cooperative purchasing and marketing associa- 

 tions a certain amount of capital may be necessary and those 

 who furnish it must be paid for its use. Since the profits of the 

 business come from the patronage, either on goods bought or 

 sold or services rendered, they should be divided on this basis 

 rather than on the amount of capital invested. In this respect 

 cooperative organizations dififer from ordinary business cor- 

 porations, which are formed for the purpose of making as great 

 a money return as possible on the capital invested. As in the 

 nation, each citizen is entitled to one vote, so in a cooperative 

 association members usually stand on a voting equality, each 

 member having an equal voice in the afifairs of the organization. 

 This prevents control by a few individuals. Members should 

 be bona fide producers. The development of the enterprise 

 should come from within as a natural growth and the profes- 

 sional promoter should be scanned with caution. At the outset 

 small local organizations are safest, but these in turn should 

 federate for greater efficiency. Examples of successful fed- 

 eration are found in the fruit associations of the Pacific north 

 west and California, where as many as 120 small local associa- 

 tions are federated into district exchanges, they in turn being 

 affiliated with a large central selling agency. The first farmers' 



