CHAPTER X 



COOPERATION 



"COOPERATION" in agriculture is one of those vague things 

 which every writer, speaker, and politician usually endorses. The 

 word has come to be used very loosely. It needs defining. The 

 word is now used in a broad and in a narrow sense. It is well at 

 this point to inquire into both the broader and the narrower use 

 of the term. 



In the Broader Sense. Cooperation is the term often used to 

 designate the working together for mutual benefit of the farmers, 

 on the one hand, and the commercial clubs of the town, the 

 bankers, the railroads, the big industries, etc., on the other hand. 

 And, in the broader sense, this is true cooperation. This meaning 

 can easily be illustrated. 



For instance, the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce (of 

 Binghamton, Broome County, New York) was among the first, 

 if not the very first, to organize what is now known as a Farm 

 Bureau. When organized and financed, the Bureau represented 

 the Chamber of Commerce, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 

 Railroad Company, and the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. The city of Binghamton and the railroad company both 

 frankly recognized that their welfare depended fundamentally on 

 the agriculture of the community. The Chamber of Commerce 

 stated the case plainly to the farmers, and secured their endorse- 

 ment, on the grounds that they would either all prosper together 

 or all suffer together. A county agricultural agent a genuine 

 community farm expert was employed. The Farm Bureau 

 department of the Chamber of Commerce proved a success far 

 greater than its organizers had hoped. Since its beginning in 

 1911 this broad experiment in cooperation of town and country 

 has been an example for other towns to follow. 



A second example of cooperation in this broader sense is that 

 of the bankers of the State of Alabama with the farmers of that 

 section. Alabama has produced one of the greatest agricultural 

 leaders of the day in the person of Mrs. G. H. Mathis (Fig. 23), 

 an actual farmer. She advised the bankers to take more interest 

 in the farmer and less interest from him, to encourage the land- 

 lords to establish friendly and helpful relations with their tenants 

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