480 



Report of Farmers' Institutes 



1. Is the volume of business that will be handled large enough 

 to justify the undertaking ? It may be said that the requirement 

 is not necessarily extremely large on the start, but there should 

 be enough business in prospect so that when the company is once 

 established there will be am23le support. 



2. It must be understood that loosely organized associations 

 have little chance of success; that a farmers' cooperative associa- 

 tion is a purely business corporation, and that if it is to succeed 

 it must be organized with the same care and must be as ably 



officered as any other busi- 

 ness corporation, i^o one 

 ever knew a mercantile, 

 manufacturing, or banking 

 company to be promulgated 

 at a large and enthusiastic 

 public gathering, and the di- 

 rectors and officers elected 

 without thought as to their 

 fitness, or whether they 

 would give the business of 

 their company the attention 

 necessary. On the other 

 hand, such institutions are 

 usually the outcome of care- 

 ful consideration on the part 

 of careful business men as to 

 the need and the probable 

 support of the company to be organized, and the fitness of the 

 directors and their willingness to act, and — most important of 

 all, perhaps — a careful consideration of the difficulties to be over- 

 come, together with the chance of failure. 



I would not be understood as being pessimistic as to the pos- 

 sibilities, because I am not ; on the contrary, I am like many other 

 men who have studied the many successful marketing institutions 

 owned and controlled by farmers — exceedingly optimistic. I 

 would only drive home the fact that these institutions are in 

 essence no different from other corporations. They are no play- 



FiG. 502. — Attractively Packed 

 Celery Ready for Market 



