grams that has ever been pulled off at a meeting of this kind. 

 Perhaps the management ought not to start out by bragging 

 that way, but I think that after looking over the program you 

 will see that it is made up of good, live subjects, presented by 

 good, live men, and we certainly feel like congratulating 

 curselves on the list of speakers we are going to present. 

 The first discussion is going to be on the matter of coopera- 

 tion. If any of you should ever be fortunate enough to visit 

 the Hudson River Valley— which, by 'the way, isn 't a valley 

 at all, but a magnificent river among the beautiful hills of 

 that region — and should be fortunate enough to walk along 

 up among the hills to a certain farm, you would come first 

 on a very homelike house among some fine old trees, where 

 the first generation lives; and then, if you should ramble 

 along the hill a little further you would come to a charming 

 little bungalow where the second and third generations are 

 now living. I had the pleasure of that experience last autumn, 

 and I was lucky enough to be there at dinner-time, and I re- 

 member that dinner as one of the most delightful occasions 

 J have ever known, not only because we had so many good 

 things to eat, but because everybody there seemed to be in- 

 terested in the fruit business, the ladies of the family just 

 as much as the men. 



Now, we frequently hear the criticism that you can 't do 

 much in cooperation at this end of the country, but that you 

 have got to get out West where the people are forced into it 

 in order to get interested in cooperation, but I think the ex- 

 perience of the people in the neighborhood I have just been 

 describing goes a long way to prove the contrary, and I am 

 very glad indeed to introduce one of my own students, Mr. 

 Walter R. Clarke of Milton, New York, who is going to talk 

 to us on "The Incomes and Outcomes of the Hudson River 

 Fruit Exchange." Mr. Clarke, Ladies and Gentlemen. 

 (Applause). 



