56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the advantages that come only through extensive business 

 arrangements. Can we secure these two desirable ends? It 

 is very difficult to do so, but it is worth while to try, — at 

 least to discuss the possible principles of action, so that while 

 we learn how to cultivate an acre to the best advantage, we 

 shall also be learning the best manner in which to make that 

 acre subservient to the life of man, securing for him comfort 

 and independence at the same time. It seems to me, that 

 much can yet be done to draw people from the over-producing 

 forms of industry on the farm. Many of the schemes that 

 have failed, and many now in operation, are worthy of study, 

 as having in them some element of good, — some element that 

 can be woven into a better system yet to be worked out. 



There are certain principles of human nature that are so 

 strong and so essential to the full development of the human 

 race, that any system of labor or government that ignores or 

 represses them, must, in the end, fail. It sometimes hap- 

 pens that schemes that have in them much that is good, fail 

 partially or completely, because they are pressed too far ; 

 because they ignore principles that are just as essential as 

 those upon which they themselves rest. 



1. I take it for granted that any system of cooperation that 

 ignores, or tends to break down the family relation, will fail 

 utterly, or will be confined to small and peculiar communities 

 that can be gathered from the people, and assembled in a 

 particular place. Such a system can never be accepted by 

 any ordinary community ; that is, it can never become 

 universal. 



2. I also take it for granted that cooperation must be of 

 such a nature that each man, or head of family, shall have a 

 voice in the management of the property concerned, and a 

 return in proportion to his agency in promoting its increase. 

 Any cooperation that ignores the family, or seeks to merge 

 the family in the community, and all profits into a common 

 stock, can never have more than a temporary or limited 

 success. 



We make these remarks here, because we know that 

 cooperative schemes have been attempted, and have failed ; 

 schemes that had in them many excellent ideas ; schemes 

 that, in theory, promised well, failed because they were not 



