126 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



These cooperative associations, in fact, are becoming more and 

 more numerous wherever specialized products, usually of a per- 

 ishable nature, must be put upon a market at some distance. 

 Wherever they have been established successfully they have suc- 

 ceeded in bringing to the producer a higher price for his product, 

 a cheaper charge for transportation, a more dependable and a 

 wider market, and consequently an increased prosperity. On 

 the other hand, the consumer has been able to get a product of 

 standard and dependable grade at a price not exceeding very 

 greatly, if at all, the price which he paid for a poorly graded 

 product unreliable in quality. 



Nowhere is it more true that "In union there is strength" 

 than in the shipment of perishable products to commission men. 

 The united farmers have been able to protect themselves in a 

 way the isolated individual farmer could never hope to do, 

 against commission men, transportation agencies, and other al- 

 lied interests. The fact that they were a'ble to choose between 

 twenty or thirty different markets during the season gave them 

 an added advantage in selling their products. 



Cooperation among farmers in New England has never been 

 very enthusiastically received although it must be said that 

 several very successful farmers' cooperative societies, both for 

 purchase and for sale of products, have been formed in our east- 

 ern states. Some of the alleged reasons for the lack of enthus- 

 iasm on the part of our New England farmers are first, the in- 

 dividualism of the farmer, his desire to do his own marketing 

 and to make his own bargains, and perhaps his dislike of inter- 

 fering in his neighbor's business or to permit his neighbor to 

 interfere in what he considers private matters. As a matter of 

 fact, the old independent farmer about whom so much has been 

 said has practically gone out of existence. The farmer of to-day 

 depends upon his market quite as much as the grocer does. His 

 products are frequently prepared for market, shipped to mar- 

 ket, handled by marketmen in precisely the same way as are 

 the products of the manufacturer. Consequently the farmer 

 is interested in the amount his neighbor sells and in the quantity 

 the consumer in his marketing town purchases. He is interested 

 in railroads, transportation, banking, and all means of exchange, 

 and the markets of the world measurably affect him. 



