2^(5 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. i 



in order to induce him to sell at a time and place when and wliere they conld 

 profit by his ignorance. I can now recollect two or three occasions when the 

 farmers of Michigan, simply from lack of intelligence as to the wheat crop of a 

 single year, have sold, almost their entire crop for less than half what it would 

 have brought them two months later in the same season, thus losing millions of 

 dollars. How easy, by a systematic organization lu which an almost infinites - 

 simal assessment on each would have secured and disseminated correcc iufor- 

 mation among them, to have saved this loss. 



But this organization, to be most effective, should not be confined to Mich- 

 igan or any one locality, but should at least be co-extensive with the Avhole 

 United States. Then, by a system of reports from the subordinate organiza- 

 tions up to the national one, where they should be prepared, condensed, tabu- 

 lated, and redistributed back to the subordinates, complete and accurate sta- 

 tistics can be placed in the hands of producers, from which they might with 

 some degree of intelligence decide when and where they shall dispose of their 

 products. Further, this national organization could, with regard to those articles 

 of production which have to compete in the markets of the world, obtain for the 

 whole country this same information in regard to the production in all the 

 principal competing countries of the world, and with the same machinery 

 place it in the hands of all the subordinate organizations interested in each 

 production, thus still further enabling the producer to decide when and where 

 to sell his products. Thus, as the result of systematic organization, we will 

 have secured to each and every producer of the land information which no 

 single man, however wealthy, would be able to obtain. 



It would also be the duty of such an organization to inculcate and instill 

 into the minds of its members the best methods of doing business. For 

 example, there is no question that it is far better for every farmer to pay down 

 at the time of purchase for whatever he gets. He will thus be enabled to 

 claim from the dealer a fair reduction in price. For he thus not only enables 

 him to buy for cash, and thus reinvest his money at once and over and over 

 again, but also saves him from liability of loss from bad debts. Now, then, if 

 thirty or forty families in a neighborhood will organize themselves together 

 and agree with each other to trade for cash and at the same time concentrate 

 their trade upon one particular dealer in a town like this, — still further, if ten 

 or fifteen such organizations surrounding such a place will thus concentrate their 

 trade, the dealer thus selected could certainly afford to deal with them upon a 

 percentage of profit which would be absolute ruin under the present slip-shod 

 trade, trust and dicker system of business. As a further example, it is unques- 

 tionable for the interest of every producer to encourage and in every way sus- 

 tain manufacturers, especially of such articles as he is obliged to use in his 

 immediate vicinity. Especially is this true if he is the producer of the raw 

 material out of which the article is produced; for he thus saves the cost of 

 transportation of the raw material to the place of manufacture, and of the 

 manufactured article back, and more he secures without cost of transportation, 

 a market for other productions which the manufacturer consumes while 

 employed in making the article. 



For instance, it is the interest of farmers of Michigan in every way to 

 encourage and sustain the manufacturer of woolen goods within this State. We 

 produce an abundance of the very best wool, and also the wheat, the pork, the 

 beef, the potatoes, and all the other provisions upon which the manufacturer 

 must live while making the wool into cloth. Why then shall we transport all 



