Fundamentals in Cooperation 19 



the average resourcefulness and initiative. These men 

 have a common purpose, and they are naturally better 

 fitted to meet it. In a dairy section, the farmers are 

 interested in the testing of cows, in the manufacture of 

 cheese, in the sale of milk, in the purchase of feed, or in 

 the establishment and maintenance of a creamery. In an 

 apple section, the growers are interested in the standardi- 

 zation of grades, in uniform packing, in a central packing- 

 house or storage plant, in the purchase of supplies for 

 spraying, for the packing of the fruit or for other purposes. 

 In the citrus industry, growers in California have or- 

 ganized to purchase or manufacture the supplies used in 

 the groves and packing-houses, to build central plants 

 where the fruit of the growers is assembled for packing, 

 to develop markets and to equalize and effect economies 

 in distribution, to reduce the number of middlemen, to 

 handle questions of public policy relating to the industry 

 and systematically to upbuild the industry in other ways. 

 Potato growers, cotton planters, cranberry growers, or 

 other special producers have common problems confront- 

 ing them, which they are naturally fitted to grasp collec- 

 tively but which the individual producer would be unable 

 to meet successfully alone. 



THE UNIT MUST LIE IN A RESTRICTED AREA 



It is fundamental that the unit of each agricultural 

 industrial organization formed to distribute and sell farm 

 crops or for other business purposes must lie in a compara- 

 tively small area. The members must be well acquainted 

 with each other, their aims must be similar, and they 

 must grow products of similar quality and character if 



