1172 New Yokk State Aukicultural Society 



cannot actually sell at retail, he can sell with such expert over- 

 sight in the liandlini]:, packing, and disposition of his products as 

 will often niake tlio ditferonce between jirofit and loss. The 

 thiiry fanners of Denmark, through cooperation, luive captured 

 the Jxindon market for butter, at the expense of the non-cooper- 

 atinji' Eniilish farmer; and, in (h)in<i,' so, the Danisli farmers have 

 increaseil tlie \ahie of th( ir own lands, and ihe returns from their 

 farms. A Danish farmer, fV)r example, joins the cooperative 

 egg association. Thereafter, he has nothing to do but produce 

 good eggs, and he receives from the association a lietter return 

 than he used to receive when he tried to handle his own eggs. On 

 the other haiul, the Danish farmer cannot dcdiver any old egg 

 to the cooperative associatitm. He must bring his production of 

 eggs, in ([uality, up to the standard of the association before he 

 can profit by its work. But this is easy to do if the farmer has 

 only to deal with the problems of production and of prompt de- 

 livery. That is to say, cooperation offers the farmer good busi- 

 ness management iu buying and selling, and this is the precise 

 thinii- which the ordinarv farmer, left to himself, cannot com- 

 znand. The apple growers in the Xorthwest have learned the 

 secret, and have captured from the apple growers of Xew York 

 a large part of our own market fV)r the highest grade of apples. 

 The farmers of Wisconsin are learning the secret, and are more 

 and more forming cooperative associations all over the state. 

 It is hard for us in the East, where the farmers are not used 

 to the system, to learn how to cooperate; for we come of an 

 ancestrv whose great merit it was that each one of them could 

 stand upon his own feet. Ihit, if the eastern farmer is again to 

 prosper, we must all of us learn how to work together. There is 

 no help for it. 



Four years ago w(< forme^l in our neighliorhood the Bedford. 

 r'ariiiei's' Cooperative Associatiou. This association is an ordi- 

 nary st()(d< company, upon which are impressed some cooperative 

 featiii'cs. It lacks some of the ([iialilies iliat are essential to co- 

 operative success in a ])urely agricultural community. The par 

 value of its shares is $1<>, and it began business with five stock- 

 holders, each of whom t(X)k forty shares. It now has more than 

 one hundred and thirtv stockholders, about two-thirds of whom 



