152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



To illustrate : The ruling price of nitrate of soda last 

 spring was $45, but several farmers bought it in mixed car lots 

 for $42.50, a saving of five and one-half per cent. Dissolved 

 South Carolina rock sold from $14 to $20, or about $16 a 

 ton on the average, but it was bought in the way named for 

 $12, a saving of twenty-five per cent. Muriate of potash 

 ruled at $45. One farmer got his supply for $39, a saving 

 of thirteen per cent. In these instances farmers paid spot 

 cash and bought through New York brokers in car lots. 



Another gain in buying together, apart from the direct 

 saving of money, is that it is a step towards trade organiza- 

 tion, towards association for trade purposes. It fosters the 

 idea of some unity of trade interest among farmers rather 

 than a complete isolation of feeling, which is too common. 

 Tliis movement towards combination is going on in all forms 

 of business, to the evident advantage of those concerned. 

 The trust, the pool, the selling agreement among employers, 

 and the trade unions among laborers, however much w^e 

 resent their abuses and hardships, are yet facts. They have 

 much of good in them and represent a change in business 

 methods and a reaction from the reign of cut-throat competi- 

 tion. The evils of trusts result chiefly frOm combinations 

 whose object is to increase the market value of stocks, rather 

 than from such combinations as increase productive effi- 

 ciency by lessening cost of production, cost of distribution, 

 selling, etc. As farmers, we cannot afford to miss the lesson 

 that, while we are competitors of each other, we also have 

 very much in common, and for a common interest which 

 benefits us as a class, and the general public also, it may pay 

 and will pay all private competitors to combine. 



The whole thing is easy except the first step : buying fer- 

 tilizers for cash. It is always the first step that counts. 



The time for planning next year's work has come and the 

 season for good resolutions is almost here. 



Let us carefully consider whether we cannot, wathin the 

 next two months, squeeze out enough cash to buy what fer- 

 tilizers we need in 1902. 



If not. consider the possibiHty of fertilizing with the cul- 

 tivator and of dropping boughten fertilizers for a year. Clean 

 out the hedgerows and scrawny headlands, cut and burn every 

 worthless bush and tree that bears black knot, casts a-shade. 



