CHAPTER XI 



FROM THE RED RIVER VALLEY TO THE FOOTHILLS 



It ain't the guns or armament nor the funds that they can pay, 

 But the close co-operation that makes them win the day; 

 It ain't the individual, nor the army as a whole, 

 But the everlastin' team-work of every bloomin' soul! 



Kipling. 



AT one of the early grain growers' conventions it 

 had been voiced as an ideal that there were 

 three things which the farmers* movement 

 nee( fed first, a trading company to sell their ^products 

 (with ultimately, it might be, the cheaper distribution 

 of farm supplies) ; second, a bank in which they could 

 own stock; third, a paper that would publish the 

 VJPWH. go that if the new Executive of the 



Company had done little else than break ground for 

 better financial arrangements and a farmers' own 

 paper, their record for the year would have shown 

 progress. 



But when the second annual meeting of the Company 

 was held they were able to show that the volume of 

 f armerft* yrain handled was dimost five million bnshpla. 

 double that of the first year, while the net profits 

 amounted to over thirty thousand dollars. The num- 

 ber of farmer shareholders had increased to nearly 

 three thousand with applications on file for another 

 twelve hundred and a steady awakening of interest 

 among the farmers was to be noticed all over the West. 

 All this in spite of the general shortage of money, a 



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