SPECIAL FARM TOPICS 247 



highly organized industries are those in which a large aggregate of 

 capital is controlled by a small number of expert capitalists. Agri- 

 culture is, perhaps, the most extreme case existing where a very 

 large aggregate of capital is divided among and controlled by a very 

 great number of capitalists. Therefore agriculture is difficult to 

 organize. For the same reason the ordinary industrial methods of 

 organization have not been found easily suited to agriculture. 



The homes and activities of agriculturists lie outside the great 

 commercial world of cities. The necessary organization of the food 

 supplies of the cities has resulted in the creation of a class who are 

 enabled by means of organization to dictate prices, on the one hand 

 to the urban consumer, and on the other to the rural producer. The 

 countryman living on the farm does not always learn quickly of the 

 rapid change taking place in the towns. To him it seems difficult 

 to understand and control. As urban life became more complex 

 and harder for the agriculturists to grasp, his position became more 

 difficult. As the organization of the distribution of food among the 

 urban population becomes more specialized and complex, the farmer 

 finds himself coming into contact less and less with his old-time cus- 

 tomer, the consumer. 



The transportation of products has made necessary the assembl- 

 ing of those products at some point in their area of production. 

 This has been done by the "middleman. In this way he has rendered 

 a great service to society, but it is a service that gave him the mas- 

 tery. The control of the food supplies has so fallen into the hands 

 of the middleman that it has inducted an unnecessary number of 

 people into the business, and has made possible profits that are out 

 of proportion to the importance of the service to society. Hence it 

 is necessary for the farmers to act conjointly in their own interests. 



There are two means by which co-operation may be organized : 

 By means of a force from without such as the middleman ; 2nd, from 

 within by the farmer himself. All successful industrial organiza- 

 tions have come from within the industry. An organization of 

 farmers must solve the following problems: It must break isola- 

 tion of farmers by drawing them together under a common bond of 

 interest; it must place the farmer as nearly as possible on the same 

 financial base as his prosperous city brother; it must secure to him 

 a fair share of the fruit of his toil ; it must restore agriculture to its 

 proper position which has been lost through bad business methods; 

 it must replace bad methods with good business methods. (B. 192 

 Ont. Ag. Dept.) 



What is Co-operation f It is an association for the purpose of 

 joint trading, ordinarily among the weak and conducted always on 

 an unselfish plan, on such terms that all who are prepared to assume 

 the duties of membership may share in its benefits in proportion to 

 the progress in which they may make use of their association. In 

 the country this important field of activity is a solution to the prob- 

 lem of correct production and marketing. ' It is the farmer's solu- 

 tion to the problem of how to overcome isolation in business, diffi- 

 culties of transportation, and other conditions that have long baffled 



