EASTERN NEBR. FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 223 



If the appeal for leadersliip cannot be made mainly on the basis 

 of self-intei-est then the appeal must be made for a democratic leader- 

 ship. Large landholders should take the responsibility of leadership 

 both to better preserve their own interests and to fulfill their obli- 

 gations to the community. If they do not, it is only a question of 

 time when they will see the profits which might go to farming made 

 by agencies outside of the landholding interests. The only safeguard 

 for the landholding interests is organization as In other lines of busi- 

 ness. Only through organization can the economies of large scale 

 business be obtained. These economies are easier and better sale of 

 standardized products, more ample and clieaper credit facilities, car- 

 load shipments and better freight rates, a Avider, more eveu and less 

 e.vpensive distribution of farm products, and a saving of payment of 

 profits to others for mai'keting services Avhenerver the work can be 

 just as effectively done by a growers' organization. 



If a farmers' organization is not to be controlled in tlie interests of 

 a few the ranl^d and tile of growers will have to he trained to take an 

 intelligent part in the organized business of farming. In the ordinary 

 business corporation the stockholders may give little or no thought 

 to what their directors are doing. Shareholders only ask for a divi- 

 dend. A growers' organization cannot succeed on this basis. An 

 efficient management iinist have an intelligent and loyal membership 

 if the farmers' organization is to hold its own in competition with the 

 powerful middlemen's organizations. ]\Lenibers that seize a temporary 

 gain by the sale of their i)roducts to a competitor may he the means 

 of destroying their own organization and of turning the whole business 

 over to a hostile c<mibination of middlemen. It may be penny gain 

 and pound lost. Investment in stock in proportion to the acreage or 

 to the contribution of products of each member will prevent a farmer 

 from abandoning his organization for the casual gain of temporarily 

 high prices. The necessity for an intelligent membership in every 

 growers' organization is what makes the organization of agriculture a 

 vaster undertaking than that of any other line of buisness. 



(From Bulletin, "How Shall Farmers Organize?" North Carolina 

 Agr. Expt. Station, February, 1914.) 



EASTERN NEIJKASKA FRUIT GROWERS AHSOLIATIOX. 



C G. Marshall, Nebraska City. 



The annual meeting of the Eastern Nebraska Fruit Growers' 

 Association was held at Nebraska City, April 1. A report of the past 

 season's business was read by the secretary an'd the membership was 

 well pleased with the progress during the first year after organizing. 

 A number of new members were admitted increasing the acreage 

 several hundred acres. Among these was more than 100 acres of 

 northwest Missouri orchards. The local association of about twenty 

 members at Brownville, Nebraska was admitted as an auxiliary to 

 the central organization. 



