Proceedings of Seventeenth ISTormal Institute 1;'9 



The institute workers and farm bureau managers can help in 

 this matter, then, by getting the farmers and owners of woodland 

 in touch with the foresters. But there is also another and perhaps 

 equally, if not more important way, — through lending a hand 

 to those who are trying to find a solution to a part of the problem 

 through cooperative marketing. Where a farmer has only a small 

 woodlot he can hardly expect to secure from a buyer the favorable 

 terms that are granted the large operator. But if all the farmers 

 in a given locality pool their issues, they should have good reason 

 to expect better prices. 



Suppose, for example, that five or six men on adjacent faiins 

 each have a woodlot containing merchantable white ash. Indi- 

 vidually the output is small. Together there are enough logs to 

 interest a responsible buyer, if he can get them delivered where 

 he can use them. Cooperative marketing is slowly coming to pass 

 with other crops. Why should it not be extended to forest pro- 

 ducts as well? 



It will not come in a day or a year. There are doubtless many 

 other farm products that will take precedence over the timber 

 crop, but that should not blind us to the fact that cooperation is 

 the logical and efficient method to follow, nor dishearten us if our 

 first efi^orts seem to yield but meager results. 



The first point for cooperation is for the farm bureau managers 

 and the foresters to get together and work out a plan; then, if it 

 seems good to the farm bureau men — as I believe it will — to 

 pass the word along to the timber producer. It is not to be ex- 

 pected, nor is it necessary, that the farm bureau managers should 

 become foresters, but if you gentlemen become interested, all of us 

 can work together, and in the end the outcome will be tangible 

 results. 



New York State has good reason to be proud of her farms. The 

 time is coming when the same may be said of her woodlands and 

 her farm forests. 



