46 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



There is perhaps no argument that will illustrate a point so forc- 

 ibly as a practical example: 



The year before we organized, blackberries sold at 75c to $1.00 per 

 24-quart case; Concord grapes, 10c, lie, 12c, and 13c per TY2 pound 

 basket. The following year with a larger crop our association averag- 

 ed $2.10 per case on blackberries and 2.3c on grapes. In other words 

 "we took nearly all the worry and work from the shoulders of our 

 growers and returned to them from fifty to one hundred percent more 

 than they had been able to realize by their individual efforts. 



You may ask how did we accomplish this. By system, education 

 and co-operative all along the line: 



FIRST: We began by educating our members how to pack their fruit 

 for the market, planting only the best commercial varieties, 

 applying up-to-date methods in cultivation and spraying, and 

 striving always to improve the quality and quantity of the pro- 

 duct. 



This education must be kept up from year to year; we talk it at 

 all our general meetings, and during the shipping season by circular 

 letters, and when the case requires it, by special letters and personal 

 calls. 



Unless this is kept up you will have many backsliders who will grow 

 slovenly and careless thinking now that they have an association all 

 the ills that the flesh is heir to will be cured and cared for by the as- 

 sociation. 



Our market is now always in a healthy condition as we ship from 

 fifty to seventy-five per cent of our receipts to outside markets with 

 the result that our returns to the growers pay them for their labor and 

 then fair returns on their investments, and what is better still, co- 

 operation has created a genuine brotherly feeling, and the growers 

 are all anxious to help each other, and no longer keep the good things 

 to themselves but pass them on as they realize that every time they 

 can help their neighbor to improve the quality of his products it means 

 a direct benefit to himself in the higher averages the association is 

 able to realize, so we are always striving to raise the standard of our 

 products, and while we can never expect to reach perfection we are 

 employing every human agency to grow stronger, better and larger. 



The question which interests us today is what are the necessary 

 elements that enter into co-operation which will make it more success- 

 ful. 



The first requisite is a competent manager who must have a 

 wide knowledge of the business so that he will be able to inspire con. 

 fidence and respect among the growers as well as among those to whom 

 he sells; he must at all times have a thorough knowledge of the crop 

 and market conditions so as to be ready at a moments notice to change 

 his shipments from an overstocked market to one that is healthy and 

 calling for his goods; he must in effect be in every market daily dur- 

 ing the shipping season. To one who knows the game this is not a 



