372 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



REMARKS BY J. A. AULABAUGH. 



In introducing the speaker the chairman said, "Over in 

 Council Bluffs, Iowa, they have successfully grown apples and 

 fruits of different kinds, and the men who have been associated 

 with the organization up there for over 21 years are ready to 

 give us some definite figures. We are going to call upon a 

 man to tell us what he has been able to do growing fruit and 

 what assistance the organization there has been to him as an 

 individual. We will now hear from Mr. J. A. Aulabaugh, a 

 director in the Council Bluffs Grape Growers' Association. 

 Mr. Aulabaugh spoke as follows: 



Your secretary has brought me before you to make a 

 statement of facts regarding co-operation in the marketing of 

 fruit. He has selected me I presume because I am a member 

 of the Council Bluffs Grape Growers' Association, a corpora- 

 tion that represents a community where co-operation has been 

 thoroughly tested and successfully practiced for 21 years. It 

 is my pleasure, therefore, to give you such facts as will prove 

 the value of such an organization. 



Since entering upon this field of labor I have endeavored 

 to keep an accurate account of all transactions executed on 

 the place and at the same time keep in touch with the asso- 

 ciation. Every crop is treated as my debtor, and all work, 

 material, etc., is charged against its individual account, and 

 all produce sold is duly credited to each account. To me 

 farming is a business, and I have never been able to understand 

 why some men go on year after year without knowing whether 

 they have made a loss or gain on their respective crops or 

 whether the profit of one crop is not consumed by the loss on 

 the other. It seems to me that the greatest help our rural 

 schools could give to the farmer would be to teach the coming 

 generation a simple and practical course of bookkeeping to meet 

 the demand of farm business. Since co-operative associations 

 will soon be the rule rather than the exception, the youth of 

 today should be taught such business rules and methods as 

 will give him self-assurance to enable him to meet business men 

 on their own ground. Co-operation must be the outcome of 

 education, and nothing will so quickly dispel the natural sus- 

 picion of the average man as a little practical information 

 about business. 



I have kept my books solely for my own convenience and 

 not with any idea of publication, so I have found it impossible 



