The Woodlot Problem 211 



Many opportunities for cooperation with the States are already 

 in existence but very few are being utilized. The great need is 

 for team-work, but that I will take up later. In a general way 

 the growing spirit of cooperation is a potent and an active factor. 



Many of the States, through their agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations, are already in the field with practical ideas 

 and practical men. 



Two clearly defined elements lie ready to our hands. The 

 task should be to combine and blend them. The first might be 

 stated as the need of organization as a result of the recogni- 

 tion of that need. The second element includes the influences 

 and activities which have only to be set in motion in the right 

 direction. Let me quote from an Austrian report in the Bulletin 

 of the Bureau of Economic and Social Intelligence, of the 

 International Institute of Agriculture, at Rome.* 



The want of organization is above all injurious to the inter- 

 ests of the small forest growers. As competition grows more 

 and more intense, forest growers find themselves in fact in a 

 position of inferiority with regard to other producers. For we 

 know that the small forest owner generally derives but very 

 small profit from his property, as he can not unaided obtain for 

 himself the means for rendering the exploitation of his property 

 more remunerative (machines and implements, wood cutting and 

 sawing plant, etc.). 



On the other hand, the interests of the large forest owners 

 are bound up with those of the smaller, in so far as they have 

 need of each other's collaboration, above all in the solution of 

 important problems of forest policy; this is why the various 

 classes of forest cultivators, uniting for one and the same object, 

 must act in concert for their common interests. 



The defense thus organized will be the more efficacious, the 

 greater the economic force represented by the various groups of 

 the parties concerned. The improvement of the economic con- 

 ditions of the small forest proprietors will then be an advantage 

 for the large proprietors themselves. 



^ i^ ^. :^ 



At present, the proprietor of forest land, with a small quantity 

 of wood to sell, is at the mercy of the middlemen, unable himself 

 to get in touch with the large markets and convey his produce to 

 them directly. 



On the contrary, the cooperative society, which should be 

 managed by technically competent persons, while ensuring to its 

 members the just measurements and scientific selection of the 



*19th Volume, 3rd year, Number 5, May, 1912. pages 4-7. 



