612 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



best, are not the best adapted to deal with men and markets and market 

 conditions. 



Co-operation further enables growers to make use of fruits grown in 

 small quantities, which are often wasted because no man has enough to 

 sell to advantage. With co-operation a car could often be loaded and the 

 fruit used to some advantage to each grower, carload lots being considered 

 the economic unit of shipment. It secures better equipment for handling 

 a crop in a section, as disorganized sections are less likely to have the 

 necessary cold storage, precooling and other equipment for the best 

 handling of a fruit crop. In addition to the benefits of co-operation 

 already mentioned, Mr. Chav.dler notes the following: (1) The crop may 

 be distributed so as to prevent gluts in the market; (2) it enables the 

 growers to establish a brand that will be known in the 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. 



Among the difficulties in the way of co-operation are: 



(1) The fact that independent growers who do not 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 co-operation 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; conse- 

 quently he will get nearly as good, if not as good, prices as members. 

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

 and members seeing independents doing as well as they, w^ithout having 

 to pay their share toward the support of the association, may tend to 

 drop out. 



(2) The difficulty 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 man- 

 agers by the members. 



Another impediment in the growth of co-operation 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. How- 

 ever, it is possible to meet this difficulty by carrying the principle of co- 

 operation a step further and securing loans through a system of co-opera- 

 tive 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 station, 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 co-operation are prevented from taking advantage 

 of it because they deal on long credit with the merchants who supply 

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

 tive credit as an essential adjunct to co-operative purchase. * * * 



