COOPERATIVE FARMING. 53 



Evening Session. 



The eveninsr meetiiior was called to order at seven o'clock. 

 Dr. Wakefield, of Monsou, in the chair. 



COOPERATION AMONG FARMERS. 



BY HON. PAUL A. CHADBOURNE. 



We have had this afternoon, gentlemen of the Board, some 

 very interesting experiments recounted here, — experiments 

 for the purpose of causing an acre of ground to produce more 

 than it had produced under the old methods of cnltivation, 

 and I know that those experiments have been very successful. 

 I called upon my friend Stockbridge for his formula, and he 

 did not tell me that I must wait until it came out in the Col- 

 lege report, but gave it to me at once ! The experiment suc- 

 ceeded admirably. I am satisfied that he is working out 

 successfully that valuable problem of making two blades of 

 grass grow where one grew before. But in all these discus- 

 sions there is one thiug comes home to me : What is the use 

 of all this production ? Why are we so anxious to cause these 

 acres of ground to produce so much more than they produced 

 in former years? Evidently, the thing we are all aiming at, 

 is the great problem of living. How are we to make life 

 more pleasant, more desirable, than it has ever yet been, and 

 especially, how are we to make farm-life more desirable? 

 For we are constantly saying, " The young men are running 

 away from the farm ; they are turning aside to other pur- 

 suits"; and the great thiug we have before us is, not only to 

 make our farms productive, but to make them the most 

 attractive places in the world. Now, I propose to address 

 myself this evening to one simple phase of this problem of. 

 living, — one of the phases which, I believe, presses itself 

 home upon the attention of the farmers of this broad land. 



The problem of living becomes more and more. complex as 

 civilization advances and population becomes more compact. 

 Savages, in their low plane of life, can live on the chance 

 products of the earth', — owning all such products in common, 



