Report of Missouri Fai^mers' Week. 121 



as the producer, and to help the retail merchant as much as the 

 farmer. 



The college also should stand ready to help the citizens of any- 

 community that desire to form a co-operative association to or- 

 ganize it in the right way and to help make it a success. 



To illustrate the value of such a bureau : Last fall Kansas had 

 a large apple crop, and it was certain that many of our farmers 

 would have had difficulty in selling their apples to advantage if 

 the college had not helped them. A member of the college exten- 

 sion staff is an experienced apple merchant as well as a successful 

 orchardist, and it was made his business to find buyers for Kansas 

 apples. Over 400 carloads were sold through this means. In the 

 main, these sales were for small growers, men who are least ex- 

 perienced in selling this crop. One morning a letter came to the 

 college from a man in Leavenworth county requesting a buyer for 

 a car of Jonathans. The same morning a telegram was received 

 from a merchant in the farmer's town, not three miles away, in- 

 quiring where he could buy a car of Jonathans. The two were 

 brought together, the sale made and the apples and the money 

 both were kept at home. 



CO-OPERATIVE STORES. 



A co-operative store is a very complicated business, and many 

 of the attempts along this line have failed. I believe that the 

 establishment of proper relations between the farmers and the 

 townspeople, whereby both work toward the development of the 

 country and the upbuilding of the town, will prove more profitable 

 to the community as a whole than an attempt on the part of the 

 farmers to operate their own stores. 



Nevertheless, if it is desired to establish such a store, and 

 doubtless there are communities where such an establishment 

 would do great good, the career of the most successful of the co- 

 operative stores is commended. The success of the Farmers' Union 

 stores in Kansas has been very pronounced. 



The foundation of all successful co-operation in this line is 

 what is known as the Rochedale stores. The first store was organ- 

 ized in 1844 by twenty-eight poor, oppressed, half -starved weavers 

 in the English town of Rochedale. Their original capital was $140. 

 Now their annual business exceeds three hundred and fifty million 

 dollars, and it forms the most powerful system of stores in the 

 world. They do both a retail and a wholesale business. They 



