464 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



This is au age of organization and co-operation. All modern 

 successful business operations are based on organization and only 

 those lines of business which are well organized are markedly suc- 

 cessful. Keen competition and an insatiate desire for greater profits 

 has driven nearly all classes of industry not only to organization, 

 but to co-operation. Our great industrial companies are nearly 

 all co-operating in their respective lines. The so-called "trusts" are 

 of course, the direct result of this extensive co-operation. How 

 ever, in many lines of busiuess, competition had destroyed profits 

 and a combination was necessary to cheapen the cost of production, 

 or increase the selling price, or both. The old adage, "Competition 

 is the life of trade," has in many cases become, "Co-operation is the 

 life of trade." 



An individual would be strong enough if there Avere only a few' 

 individuals, but vrhen an individual is one of a large class he is 

 Weak and the larger the class, the weaker the individual. Since the 

 farming class is the most numerous, it follows that the farmer is the 

 weakest of individuals when he stands alone. The fact bears out 

 this theory. Practically every farmer, as Director Bailey points out, 

 "stands alone in his farming, and attemps single-handed to contend 

 with all the co-operative interest of the business world. The re- 

 'sult is that for the most part he is a negligible factor in trade." 

 For years farmers have been compelled to accept buyers' prices be- 

 cause they lacked the organized powder to enforce more equitable 

 prices. Nor is this all. Farmers have in many cases when there 

 was no necessity for it so competed with one another as to destroy 

 all profit. 



It is clear that farmers have within them undoubted great power, 

 but they can only exert it through organization and co-operation. 

 Unorganized, farmers are weak, and are the prey of all other strong 

 individuals and organized classes. Organized, they may exert a 

 power, second to none. Farmers represent the greatest invested 

 capital in the world. They own the essentially productive jtart of 

 the earth, controlling the world's supply of food and clothing. Tlie 

 power of labor and capital would sink into insignificance beside that 

 which organized farmers could exert. Although the third to assert 

 itself, the farmer power would be the first in strength and import- 

 ance, widening a power such as the world never before knew. 



But let us not misunderstand the true purpose of co-operation. 

 It is not to tyrannize over the rights of their fellow-men, that farm- 

 ers should organize. Unless he can secure his just rights without 

 infringing on the rights of others, better that he remain as he is. 

 Co-operation aims not to increase the selling price of farm products, 

 but to cheapen the cost of their production, save the middlemen's 

 profit, and secure to the consumer a better article. Co-operation 

 should result in the betterment of all. 



The History of Co-operative Fruit Growing. 



If we examine the horticultural situation we shall have no diffi- 

 culty in obseniug great opportunities for improvement. Our own 

 observation leads us to think that the greatest need is that of the 

 application of modern and systematic business methods to the fruit 

 industry. In order to fully realize this need, and to impress upon 



