18 The Bulletin. 



sary to interest the adult farmer; in the future, as it has been in the 

 past, by such means as may be necessary to retain his attention and 

 increase the cooperative work. 



2. Cooperating in buying and selling. We seem to have inherited 

 the characteristics of our fathers. The North was settled in hamlets 

 where they were closely associated, and interested themselves more or 

 less in the affairs of their neighbors, while the Southern man went to 

 his farm and seldom saw his neighbor except on business; hence the 

 northern man is more easily brought into cooperation. Either trait 

 can be developed to an extent which is unpleasant if not unprofitable. 



There usually is as much in the selling of the crop as in the making, 

 and a good amount can be saved by cooperation which is now lost by 

 individual handling. This has often been demonstrated; it is singular 

 that the farmer neglects it. As I wrote the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 the National Department can not formulate a system suitable to every 

 section and pass it down to the farmers, but it must start in the neigh- 

 borhood where the goods are produced and combine the farmers inter- 

 ested; then let two neighborhoods unite, then a township, county and 

 so on. But the farmer is impatient; he expects to do things on his 

 fann in a year, and that is about as long as he will quietly wait for 

 anything. He is learning and this will come, as he sees it is the practice 

 of other professions, and the crop four or five years hence and not this 

 year is to be the aim. 



Cooperation or working together in all matters where there is a com- 

 mon interest. The right thing done at the wrong time or in the wrong 

 way is as harmful as if the intention had been wrong. The following 

 anecdote illustrates this. John, on a trip to town, bought a pair of 

 pants which fitted him except they were two inches too long, thinking 

 his wife could remedy this. Arriving at home, where his sister and 

 niece were visiting, he stated what a bargain he had made and asked 

 his wife to fLs them so he could 'wear them to church next day. She 

 replied, ''John, you knoAV this is Saturday night and that I have no 

 time to fix your pants." After supper the niece quietly got the pants 

 and cut off two inches to help aunty so that Uncle John could wear 

 his pants to church. The sister thought, "I know Sarah is tired and 

 I'll fix brother's pants so he can wear them." She got the pants, cut 

 them off two inches and hung them up. After eleven o'clock, the weary 

 wife, just as she had intended to do all the time, says, "Well, I'll fix 

 John's pants," and she did and hung them up again; and each of the 

 three went to bed feeling good that John could wear his pants. Next 

 morning John arose, "nursing his wrath to keep it warm," determined 

 to wear the long pants so as to mortify his wife for not fixing them. 

 He jerked them on expecting to find them clinging around his ankles 

 and heels, but instead he found the chilly air occupying that locality, 

 and casting his eye thither he discovered that he resembled a man going 

 for a game of baseball rather than going to worship. He jumped up 



