274 NEBRASKA STATIC HoimcT t/riKAr, S(M'rRTY 



markets and will thus insure better prices; (3) it insures better care of 

 the orchards; and (4) in nearly all cases it results in greater stability 

 of the industry. 



Amons the difficulties in the way of cooperation are: 



(1) The fact that independent growers who do noi help support the 

 association get many of the benefits received by the members without 

 paying for them. This will be evident when it is considered that one 

 of the greatest functions of cooperation is proper distribution; and if 

 the association keeps fruit, for example, out of the way, there is little 

 danger of the independent grower's fruit going into a glutted market; 

 consequently he will get nearly as good, if not as good, prices as mem- 

 bers. This being true, independent growers will be slow to join the 

 association, and members seeing independents doing as well as they, 

 without having to pay their share toward the support of the association, 

 may tend to drop out. 



(2) The difliculty of keeping the quality of the goods handled by 

 the association as high as the quality of goods that would be handled 

 by the best growers working independently. 



(3) Crop failures that get the association out of working order on 

 off years. 



(4) A spirit of envy and lack of confidence and support of the 

 managers by the members. 



Another impediment in the growth of cooperation which might have 

 been noted is the difficulty of securing funds to finance the production 

 and marketing of the crop in the way prescribed by the association. 

 However, it is possible to meet this difficulty by carrying tlie principle 

 of cooperation a step further and securing loans through a system of 

 cooperative credit, which has done much for European farmers toward 

 solving economic problems of the farm and community. Mr. Charles 

 Douglas, of Scotland, as quoted in a bulletin of the Missouri stations, says: 



The greatest practical obstacle in the way of agricultural organization 

 is generally the difficulty of finance. A very large number of those who 

 might benefit most by cooperation are prevented from taking advantage 

 of it ])ecause they deal on long credit with the merchants who supply 

 them. It is this fact which has chiefly led to the develojjuient of co- 

 operative credit as an essential adjunct to cooperative purchase. * * • 



The fundamental idea of the Raffeisen banks, which are the general 

 model for cooperative credit in agriculture, is that the farmers in a 

 small area should combine to find credit for one another. They provide 

 loans for approved reproductive purposes; and the banks rely for their 

 success on the knowledge which their members and managers have of 

 local circumstances and of the character of the applicants, as well 

 as on the fact that each member, being implicated with every transaction, 

 has an interest in seeing that loans are only made for suitable puri)oses 

 and to reliable persons. It is an interesting corroi)oration of the sound- 

 ness of this principle that these banks do not in i)ractice have any bad 

 dpl)ts. Botli in (!(Mui;iiiy iiiul in llnly Uir i);inl<s are closely associated 



