104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



dliug and selling their own products, prices have been real- 

 ized that were considered impossible before, and the key to 

 a live enthusiasm has been found. Think you this holds 

 south of Mason and Dixon's line, but bears no relation to 

 farm life in Massachusetts or in Maine? Think you that 

 l)resent conditions can long continue while individuals strive 

 as units for what comes so easily to united forces ? This in- 

 dustry has not always been honored by the men who till the 

 acres. What we would have is one thing; what we must 

 have may be quite another. If we are to realize a fair share 

 of the consumer''s dollar, individual methods and long -con- 

 tinued practices must be cast one side, and the farmers of 

 a community or section be organized for mutual protection. 

 Relief can come in no other way. You may curb the op- 

 pression of big corporations, but you cannot legislate them 

 out of business. Organization must meet organization, and 

 individual conceptions, the outgrowth of the years, yield to 

 methods employed by successful bodies to-day. The prob- 

 lem is not what it was, or is, but w^hat is to he, and for this 

 we must prepare. In May, 1911, 9 neighbors in one of our 

 hill towns of Maine met and organized a Fruit Growers' 

 Association, and elected one of the number agent, the result 

 being that while all about apple growers have sold their 

 crop this year for $1.50 to $1.75 per barrel, this agent has 

 returned to these members from $2.45 to $2.85 net per bar- 

 rel for their shipments. More than this, the uniform grade 

 of the pack is so good that buyers are calling for more. 

 There is no patent on this movement. It is as ap]ilicablc in 

 Barre or Blandford, on the cape or west of the Berkshircs, 

 as among the hills of Oxford County, in Maine. One dollar 

 per barrel more than their neighbors are getting naturally 

 satisfies, and the influence of united effort is not overlooked. 

 Here is the key to the solution of the problem. Through 

 organization you can reach the consumers direct, and that 

 may be large or small. So strong is my faith, so certain 

 am T that good results will follow, that I want to urge that 

 com])laints cease, and that here and there a circle of influ- 

 ence be formed to take over, sort, jiack, handle and dispose 

 of the product of individual farms. TTad the apple growers 



