THE NEW EARTH 



of large economic importance. As early as 

 1860, associated dairying was followed by New 

 York farmers, much the same in spirit as 

 actual cooperation. In other states coopera- 

 tion in one form or another was tried, but it 

 was not until the farmers of the central West, 

 learning from their eastern friends and hearing 

 the call of Rochdale, began cooperation, that 

 it can be said to have attained anything like 

 large proportions. Many of the western far- 

 mers were the sons of the pioneers who had 

 opened the country in the midst of great hard- 

 ships. They were, in many cases, still living 

 under the shadow of old debts. Frequently, 

 through lack of knowledge, they had worn 

 out their soils by too steady cropping of wheat, 

 and were learning by dear experience that 

 they must diversify their farming or sink still 

 deeper in the slough of debt. It was the day 

 of dependence upon eastern capital, and, how- 

 ever great the real obligations which farmers 

 owed to others for starting them in their life 

 through loans from the East, which not infre- 

 quently were larger in their risks than even 

 the farmers themselves appreciated, still the 

 debts were there and must be met. 



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