STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ^J 



only used for such purposes. But since the organization has not 

 and does not lend itself readily to enterprises of this nature on 

 a large scale, some other method will have to be devised. I am 

 not going to say that cooperation is the easiest thing in the 

 world. Neither will I place it in the category of desirable 

 things yet impossible, for there are thousands of successful 

 cooperative enterprises in this country, and if you are ready to 

 approach this in the right way, and to submit to some of the 

 essentials which successful cooperative organizations have found 

 it necessary to impose on their members, you will have plenty 

 of examples to profit by, and it is reasonable to suppose that 

 success will crown your efforts. 



Foreign countries have led the way in cooperative movements 

 for years. The Orange Judd Farmer is authority for the fol- 

 lowing facts and figures : "More than looo cooperative so- 

 cieties for the purchase of fertilizers, implements, fuel, stock, 

 feed, etc., are in operation in Germany. There are about 1600 

 associations organized for the sale of farm produce ; this coun- 

 try also has 1682 cooperative dairy associations. 



In France the cooperative societies control the markets for 

 many agricultural commodities. 



The little country of Belgium several years ago had 776 agri- 

 cultural leagues with a membership of 42,000. There were 780 

 societies for cooperative purchasing, and cooperative dairies 

 increased from 69 to 427 in ten years. 



Holland has many agricultural unions. Forty thousand Dutch 

 farmers supply milk to cooperative creameries. 



The membership of cooperative dairies in Denmark numbers 

 148,000. Seventy-five per cent of all the cows in Denmark con- 

 tribute their product to these cooperative associations. This 

 country also operates twenty-seven cooperative bacon factories. 



Sweden has 430 cooperative creameries ; Norway 430 ; and 

 Siberia 2035." 



Great Britain is the home of the cooperative idea. The fa- 

 mous Rochdale movement, formed by twenty-eight mill work- 

 ers to purchase the necessities of life, and after which many of 

 the movements in our own country have been patterned, has a 

 membership numbering millions, and they enter every field of 

 commercial work with their cooperative plans. At the last 



