THE RURAL COMMUNITY 321 



The relation of the farmer to others of the community 

 includes the following fields of activity: business, education, 

 religion, social affairs, recreation. Rural people, and others 

 too, find a common interest in each of these activities and 

 they require cooperative effort to be of value to the com- 

 munity. 



Business relations. This group refers to any kind of 

 cooperation among farmers for conducting enterprises con- 

 cerned with the business of farming. It includes such simple 

 forms of cooperation as exchange of labor, such as filling 

 silos, threshing grain, and the like. It also includes larger 

 enterprises requiring complete and permanent organization, 

 such as cooperative creameries, fruit exchanges and live-stock 

 associations. 



All forms of cooperation between, and including, these 

 extremes are based upon the principle that a number of 

 individuals working as a group, wisely directed, may ac- 

 complish more than the same number with each one working 

 independently. 



The advantage of cooperative effort is being recognized by 

 farmers. This is indicated by the fact that in the last thirty 

 years cooperative societies have increased from a few thou- 

 sand to more than one hundred thousand. These figures 

 include only the larger societies. The following examples 

 will illustrate the nature and importance of the larger or- 

 ganizations: Live-stock shipping associations have been 

 maintained successfully in several states of the Middle West. 

 By means of these associations, farmers are able to ship, 

 advantageously, less than car-load lots of live stock directly 

 to the market and receive a profit that would otherwise go 

 to a local live-stock buyer. 



Cooperative grain elevators are another example. In 



