THE ECONOMICS OF CROP DISPOSAL. 9 



COMMUNITY COOPERATION. 



The latest step which has now been taken looks to a synthesis of 

 these three lines of attack— a sort of coordination of the several kinds 

 of work we are already doing, with a view to making each of them 

 more effective. It is proposed to encourage communities of cotton 

 growers to cooperate to the extent of planting some one improved 

 variety of cotton, of keeping this variety pure and up to standard 

 by continued selection of seed fields, and of marketing the cotton as 

 nearly direct as may be, in order that the growers themselves may 

 receive the higher prices which the cotton is worth and which the 

 manufacturers have to pay. This is, of course, but the briefest state- 

 ment of the plan. It involves the use of the new varieties which our 

 breeders produce, the education of farmers in the roguing of these 

 varieties in the field, the development of improved methods of gin- 

 ning and of grading at the gin, and the direct sale of the crop by 

 associations of growers, with the establishment of warehousing facili- 

 ties to avoid market gluts and many similar improvements. All this 

 requires a thorough understanding of the economics of the cotton 

 business. Many different and important agencies must in the end be 

 brought into harmonious working relations if this project is to be 

 successful. There seems reason to hope that it can be done. Not 

 easily, perhaps, but as the result of patient and persistent teamwork. 



In a large measure, similar work is possible in other fields. We 

 need to stimulate community action among producers to the fullest 

 extent. It is almost hopeless for us to expect to reach the individual 

 farmer. He is too many for us, but we can hope to reach many of 

 the groups of associated farmers, even in the larger industries. 



CONCLUSION. 



It may be that this subject has been treated more from the stand- 

 point of sociology than of economics. But, after all, the two are not 

 so far apart. The Bureau of Plant Industry represents one of the 

 institutions established by society in the effort to provide itself with 

 the necessities of life. We need occasionally to consider the larger 

 phases of our problem — to take new bearings — for it is required of us 

 not only that we execute the orders we receive, but also that we in- 

 dicate what new orders should be given us, 



I do not mean to intimate that we have solved all the problems of 



production. They come on endlessly, like the troubles from Pandora's 



box. But I do feel that the time has come for us to look at our 



agricultural industries as industries and to so shape our work that it 



82678°— Cir. 118—13 2 



