238- BACKGROUND AND MEANS OF SERVICE 



tion or not. But he has no direct connection with or 

 responsibility to the state federation. 



The organization of farmers for the cooperative market- 

 ing of their products has been next in importance in the 

 work undertaken ; in fact, it has been first in many of the 

 Middle Western states. A great deal of money has been 

 spent in those states on high-salaried men to work on this 

 problem and some good results have been attained. Re- 

 sults have, however, not always been in proportion to 

 expenditures. Some states in other sections of the coun- 

 try have shown that by the use of voluntary committees 

 and public experts, they have been able to accomplish prac- 

 tically as much with little or no direct expenditure. 



Probably next in importance has been the legislative 

 activities of the state federations. A number of the states 

 have formulated and carried out quite comprehensive agri- 

 cultural programs for the protection and advancement of 

 farming, and practically all the states have been able to 

 accomplish a good deal in the way of desirable agricul- 

 tural legislation. Practically no activity has been mani- 

 fested in political questions, but work has been wisely 

 confined to farm matters. 



These three broad divisions embrace most of the work 

 done, although there are of course a multitude of less im- 

 portant matters. 



FEDERATION RELATIONS TO COOPERATIVES 



The large activities of the federations in helping to 

 organize and develop cooperative organizations for buying 

 and selling have raised important questions as to the rela- 

 tionships which should obtain between a farm bureau fed- 

 eration and commercial cooperative associations. Two 

 relationships are possible. 



