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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1914 



The Cooperative Marketing of Fruit 



A. E. Adams, ot the United P/uit Companies, Ltd., of Nova Scotia, Berwick, N.S. 



BEFORE takiiiK part in any coopera- 

 tive movennent, . however larpe or 

 however small, it is absolutely es- 

 sential ope should thoroughly under- 

 stand what c6operation really is, what the 

 object of cooperation is, and what are us 

 irreat and beawtiful principles. Unless 

 the membership of all cooperative organi- 

 zations thoroughly understand this it vs a 

 difficult matter to make the movement a 

 success. 



What is cooperation? Cooperation is the 

 pow€r of individual effort associated for 

 the common welfare. 



Therefore, when allying himself with 

 any cooperative movement, the individual 

 must be prepared if necessary to make sac- 

 rifices; having absolute faith that if called 

 upon to do so, the sacrifice, being for the 

 eood of all, is therefore 

 his own good. There is 

 cooperative organization^ 

 erasping, greedy man, 



who 



ultimately for 

 no place in any 

 for the selfish, 

 for the very spirit 

 of^cS^'per'atTorrs unselfishness and a /eadi- 

 pess to help one another, a splendid bro- 

 therhood of interests. 



There are some people we meet 

 soeak of the cooperative movement that has 

 obtained such a firm footing in the Annap- 

 olis Vallev as though it were something 

 new. as though it were a dreamer s ideal 

 as though it were an experiment, but 1 

 can assure vou that cooperation passed the 

 experimental stage vears and years ago. 

 and is now recognized to be the only means 

 of remedying many of the evils and disad- 

 vantages under which we labor. 



The cooperative movement started, as 

 most successful movements do start, very 

 humblv, and has onlv succeeded bv actual 

 demonstration continuously maintained, 

 that it iis not onlv right in principle but 

 thpt it is justified bv its success financially 



The idea of roonemtive effort was first 

 evidenced in Scotland over one hundred 

 vears ago. but it was not until 1S44— iseventy 

 vears a^o-that it took a reallv tangib e 

 form In that vear a number of Rochdale 

 weavers', who hnd long been discussing var- 

 ious social p-oblems. came to the conclu- 

 sion that profits derived through dealings 

 in the r.ecessities of life, should be paid 

 out on the same basis as they are paid m 

 —that as thev are first reckoned and ob- 

 tained on the purchase price, they should 

 be paid out as dividends on purchases, 

 while canital should onlv receive a fair in- 

 terest; This seemed to have been the orig- 

 inal discoverv bv these Rochdale weavers. 

 They held verv stron<?lv that profit made 

 out of the peoole in front of the counter 

 should be paid bark to these people who 

 created the profit after a fair interest had 

 been oaid on the capital required' to mam- 

 tain..,the business. 



Tn ordinarv business canitabsts invest 

 their money onlv when they have an as- 

 surance of a good return and there is no 

 inducement to the canitalist to invest un- 

 less there is some indiration that the busi- 

 nes'S under consideration will give him a 

 better return than, sav, as your funds are 

 invested. There is therefore no induce- 

 ment to the capitalist to invest his money 

 in a cooperative concern because he will 

 never under any circumstance irct a large 

 return, and in addition it is contrary 

 to true cooperative p rinciples for outside 



•Kxtract from an addireee delivered before the 

 Inst nnnusl convention ot the Nova Sootla Fruit 

 Growers' Association. 



capital to be used. No cooperative concern 

 works for profit and the difference between 

 cost and actual return is rebated. It is 

 true certain so-called cooperative organiza- 

 tions invite outside capital. I know of one 

 in Canada that is advertising its stock for 

 sale, but I wish to place it on record that 

 such an arrangement cannot exist under 

 a true cooperative system. In any true 

 cooperative concern the only stock holders 

 are the actual cooperators. 



These Rorhdile weavers tried the ex- 

 periment of running a shop, or as we 

 should call it, a store, that should belong 

 to the customers and their efforts were at- 

 tended with immediate success. It held 

 the germ of a great ideal, that no individual 

 should be allowed to amass a fortune out 

 of the necessities of life to the community. 

 Out of that humble beginning and out of 

 that great ideal has grown that great, that 

 mighty organization known ais the Whole- 

 sale Cooperative Society of Great Britain, 

 an organization with a yearly turnover ex- 

 ceeding $608,000,000. 



It must not be supposed, however, that 

 this movement was allowed to grow without 

 strenuous opposition. Tn this direction I 

 would like to direct the attention of those 

 who are so foolishly opposing cooperation 

 in the Annapolis Valley, to history, which 

 clearly demonstrates how futile is opposi- 

 tion, for cooperation has shown repeatedly 

 that it has some great principle of life 

 within it which make;s it grow steadily. It 

 makes an appeal to the cool reason of man 

 unlike the hot pride and passion of war, 

 and even, if I may say so, the enthusiasm 

 of religion. Note how opposition acted as a 

 spur to the humble pioneers of cooperation 

 in England, and tended very largely to 

 hasten its development. 



The people who were most seriously af- 

 fected by the Rochdale weavers were the 

 retail merchants, for the cooperators ccn- 

 sidered these merchants unnecessary and 

 expensive encumbrances between the manu- 

 facturer or producer and consumer. The 

 merchants, therefore, through the press, 

 which was largely supported by their ad- 

 vpT-tisements, heaped ridicule on the 

 movement. 



This had the reverse effect to what was 

 intended and simplv directed attention to 

 the several cooperative stores that had 

 come into existence, and made people 

 think that after all there must be some- 

 thing in what these cooperators were doing, 

 with the result that many other cooperative 

 societies! were formed, and the membership 

 of nil existing societies was much increased. 



Finding that their first move to destroy 

 these societies had miscarried, the mer- 

 chants tried other tactics, and through 

 their association gave notice that any 

 wholesale merchants or manufacturers hav- 

 ing- nnv dealinys with the coooerators 

 would be boycotted. At that time the coop- 

 erative societies were not many in num- 

 ber, and at first. the boycott was a serious 

 matter to them, but a;s. is often the case, 

 opposition caused' them to adopt a more 

 vigorous programme and carry their cooper- 

 ative movement a stage further, resulting 

 in all the societies amalgamating under 

 on.? head, the present Cooperative Wholesale 

 Society. The boycott I have referred to 

 proved the finest advertisement the move- 

 ment could have had, and proved to the 

 world at large that cooperation was accom- 

 plishing what it set out to do. The natur- 



al result was that the membership of the 

 societies still further increased, and again 

 many new societies came into being. ^" 

 the societies collectively formed a v 

 powerful organization, which beiiuR uim 

 the boycott immediately proceeded to m 

 other arrangements for obtaining the go' . 

 necessary to run their business, and re- 

 sulted in a still further strengthening of 

 the movement. 



The Cooperative Wholesale Society was 

 formed in 186.3 A sentence taken from 

 prospectus sums up in a few words ■ 

 object of the whole movement. "The 

 ject of the society is to bring the prod u 

 and consumer of commodities nearer to 

 each other, and thus secure for the work- 

 ing classes those profits that have hitli' 

 to enriched only the individual." 



The Cooperative Wholesale Society is the 

 central association for the subsidiarv com- 

 nanies in the same way as the United Fruit 

 Companies is the central for all the Cooper- 

 ative Fruit Companies in Nova Scotia. 



All the subsidiary societies operate large 

 stores, in which are handled practically 

 every article that one can imairine. These 

 include groceries, drapery, millinery, fur- 

 niture, hardware, fish, meat, poultry, dairy 

 produce, and so forth, and in connection 

 with each society theie is a large bakery. 

 The members can obtain absolutely every- 

 thing they require in the world, through 

 their own store. These subsidiary societies 

 obtain all their supplies from the central, 

 which acts as buyer, manufacturer and dis- 

 tributor. .All the trade of the central is done 

 in goods bought by their own buyers at 

 home and abroad, and distributed to the 

 retail societies from its warehouse;. One 

 jreneral principle runs through all the pur- 

 chasing done by the Cooperative Wholesale 

 Society buyers, namely to go direct to the 

 source of production, whether at home or 

 abroad, so as to save the commissions of 

 middlemen and aR-ents. 



In New York, Montreal, Spain (I>enia), 

 and Sweden the Cooperative Wholesale So- 

 ciety has purchasing depots with resident 

 buyers, whose office it is to purchase and 

 ship home the productions of thes« coun- 

 tries as required by English cooperators. 

 On arrival in England the goods are divid- 

 ed among the warehouses at Manchester, 

 Newcastle. London, Birmingham, Bristol, 

 Cardiff, Leeds, Huddersfield, Blackburn, 

 Northampton, etc., so that the subsidiary 

 societies can conveniently draw their sup- 

 plies as needed. The total amount of the 

 (roods imported direct by the Cooperative 

 Wholesale Society from foreign countries in 

 the twelve months ended December, 1910, 

 was $35,363,350. 



(To be continued) 



Mr. A. R MacLenn.-.n. B.S.A., Demon- 

 strator m Pomology, Ontario Agricultural 

 College, Guelph, Ontario, has been appoint- 

 ed lecturer in horticulture at Macdonald 

 College, P.Q., succeeding Mr. F. M. Cle- 

 ment, B.S.A., who has recentiv been ap- 

 pointed director of the Vineland Experiment 

 Station, Ontario. Mr. MacLennan gradu- 

 ated from the Ontario Agricultural College 

 in 1908, and for the past four vears has 

 been connected with the horticultural de- 

 partment at that institution, where he has 

 had charge of the vesretable work, in which 

 he has had a very wide experience. He has 

 been closely identified with the Ontario 

 Vegetable Growers' Association, and has 

 done _ much valuable work for them in 

 experimental investigations, and will prove 

 a valuable acquisition to the staff of Mac- 

 donald College. 



