112 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



There are many difficulties in the way of growing vegetables under 

 glass that can only be learned by experience, but for those who love to 

 care for growing plants there is a great deal of pleasure and comfort in 

 the work outside the profits there may or may not be in it, that has to 

 serve as compensation, in many cases, for care and close attention given 

 at a time of the year when the rest of nature is coTered up in snow and 

 ice. 



A PLEA FOR UNITY OF ACTION AMONG FARMERS. 



HON. F. W. REDFERN, MAPLE RAPIDS. 



I spent the month of January in talking at Farmers' Institutes in dif- 

 ferent sections of the State. For the first two weeks I talked in the fruit 

 belt, and I expected to find among the fruit growers of western Michigan, 

 shippers' associations, and clubs, organized for the avowed purpose of 

 advancing the interests and increasing the influence of these gentlemen. 

 But, with one exception, I was disappointed, so far as the shipping asso- 

 ciations were concerned. I found at Fennville a shippers' association 

 in active and successful operation. I found that there had been one at 

 Ludington, but it had fallen into a state of innocuous desuetude. Farm- 

 ers were standing with their hands on their hips and arms extended, 

 saying, "Don't come quite so near to me. I would rather trust a middle 

 man, whose interests are not identical with mine, to market my produce 

 than a member of my own community." "I had rather trust my interests 

 to some man who has no interest in me, than to trust a man interested 

 In marketing products similar to mine," and yet they admitted that their 

 methods of marketing were reacting upon themselves. I found them 

 packing small peaches in the bottom, and in the middle of the basket, and 

 large ones on the top, in the fond hope and expectation that they would 

 create a demand for their product. They were packing in bushels, and 

 fifths and sixth baskets, with the firm belief that they could obtain as 

 much for the sixth basket as for the fifth, cheating, of course, their cus- 

 tomers, and indirectly themselves. 



A gentleman in business said to me once, "I believe that of all men, 

 farmers are the most discontented and complaining." He said, "You fel- 

 lows are always saying, 'It is too hot or it is too cold,' 'it is too wet' or 

 'it is too dry;' 'the wind blows too hard' or 'not enough;' if your crops are 

 abundant, you complain because prices are low; while if your crops are 

 short, you grumble because you have nothing to seH." 



COMPLAINTS OF FARMERS. 



It is possible that farmers do complain without just cause, but I would 

 like to review, to some extent, the conditions under which agriculture is 

 being carried on. Agriculture today is in a state of transition. The great 

 forces of elctricity and steam are carrying the commodities of the earth 

 into new places, through new arteries. In a business sense, it is no longer 

 four thousand miles from the ports of New York or Rio Janeiro, to 

 Liverpool, but only 200 hours sail from the granaries of North and South 



