102 Mis.stjtin Agricull iiral h'cpoii. 



pack — results which could not have beeu accomplished except through 

 co-operation. 



I handled last fall 44 cars of peaclics. If I had attempted to sell 

 those peaches myself I would have neglected the picking and worked 

 myself to death. I gave my personal attention, together with two as- 

 sistants, to packing the fruit. Three of us stood there superintending 

 the packing all tlie time. I turned the selling of it over to the Ozark 

 Fruit Growers' Association and, after paying them a commission, I am 

 satisfied I received more for them than though 1 had sold them myself. 

 Every car was sold on track at satisfactory prices. 



This is just simply one wa}^ in which farmers can combine. We 

 haA^e in our section a Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company, whereby we 

 get insurance at cost and pay only where there is a loss. We have our 

 own telephone system. Four years ago I paid two dollars a mouth for 

 a telephone; now I pay 25 cents a month and have better service and 

 over more territory. These are tilings you can all have, and many more 

 if you want. It may be more difficult to handle corn and wheat and cattle 

 and hogs along the line of co-operation, but it is feasible. You must 

 simply co-operate in a. locality on raising a certain thing. If you 

 are in a good corn producing section you know you should not sell corn. 

 You are impoverishing your land. Yon should sell hogs. Organize a 

 swine growers' association. Have a selling agent, and as fast as you 

 get a car-load ship it out. AVhen there is a ])rother hard up for money, 

 lend him some until his hogs are ready to be marketed. In Gentry, 

 Arkansas, the Fruit Growers' Association has a canning factory, and 

 when the fruit will not do to ship it is turned over to the canner. They 

 can cull apples, peaches and also can tomatoes. They also have an 

 evaporator. They have a manager who sells all the fruit grown by the 

 mem])ers. If you are in a section adapted to raising sheep, organize for 

 the purpose. Improve your grade of sheep and sell your lambs and 

 wool together. The same way with the wheat section or the growing of 

 any other crop. You will never accomplish the results .you should ac- 

 complish until you do it through organization. Can you think of a 

 single article that you buy that does not come to you through an 

 organization having fixed prices? AVhy is it you are a])le to stand 

 against such a formidable array of organizations and trusts? It is be- 

 cause you work fourteen to sixteen hours a day. You work your chil- 

 dren who should be in school, and your wives work. If you were limited 

 to ten hours a dny you could not stand what you mtc stMuding today. I 

 am speaking of our average farmer. Now 1 presume 1 see before me 



