338 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



A third form of co-operative organization is represented by co- 

 operative buying. Any grange, fruit-growers' association or other 

 organization, by working together, can save its members considerable 

 money by buying fertilizers, seeds, spraying materials and similar 

 supplies together. I know of one grange in a potato-growing region 

 which for years has bought its seed potatoes from Maine by the car 

 load and had its fertilizers mixed according to its own formula by 

 the fertilizer firm which would give the best bid with a sufficient 

 guarantee of the product. 



The most prominent farmers' organization at the present day is 

 the Grange. Its aims and purposes are too well known to need 

 discussion. We are likely to forget the good which it has accom- 

 plished for farming interests, yet its possibilities lie far in advance 

 of what it has already done. 



It is the duty of the farmer to interest himself in questions of 

 public policy, questions which may influence him chiefly or which 

 may influence other members of the community equally. First among 

 these I will mention good roads. This is a question of paramount 

 importance to the farmer, despite the problem of the automobile 

 which is now undergoing solution. The farm which has between 

 it and the market a hill with a grade of 8 to 10 feet in the hundred, 

 or a piece of swampy road which may be nearly impasable at seasons 

 of the year, is worth many per cent. less than a farm of equal pro- 

 ductiveness more favorably situated. The weight of load which can 

 be hauled is determined by the steepest or poorest point in that road, 

 not by ils average condition. What the solution of this road prob- 

 lem shouhl be I am not wise enough to say. I am not at all sure 

 that the most promising line is in seeking appropriations for dis- 

 connected patches of State road here and there, built at excessive 

 cost, for the accommodation of certain communities and certain 

 legislators who wish to please their constituents. I believe that this 

 problem needs careful, systematic study by men trained for that 

 purpose, men who should be able to devise methods of building 

 country roads at reasonable cost which, while not equal to the 

 macadamized roads, shall greatly improve our present ones. The 

 bad location of many of our roads is one of their worst features, 

 yet even this could often be changed at far less expense than the 

 making of State roads. Thorough drainage alone would do much 

 to solve this problem. 



Not all communities need to interest themselves especially in 

 the problem of the rural telephone, yet I find many localities in 

 the State which are not yet served as they should be in this respect. 

 Unfortunately it is not easy to establish an independent line where 

 corporation lines already are in the field, but undoubtedly this is 

 the method which will give best returns for the farmers' money. 

 As an illustration, let me mention the company in our own locality. 

 T well remember when this movement was started. Small in its 

 beginning working to us from the westward, farmers were allowed 

 to furnish poles or work in part payment for their stock and no 

 man was allowed to o\sti more than three shares of stock, thereby 

 guarding against monopoly. At the present time this company is 

 represented by nearly 1,200 stockholders, with half as many renters» 

 and owns about 2,000 miles of wire. There is scarcely a farm in 

 the region but can be reached by 'phone. The expense at the present 



