288 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



"California is exporting a large number of agri- 

 cultural products: her grains, wines and wools are 

 quoted in the markets of the world. Our farmers 

 must make themselves familiar not only with our 

 productions and home markets but with markets in 

 which our surplus may be demanded. The channel 

 through which such information may be obtained, 

 to be reliable, should be created and controlled by 

 the farmers themselves. Unless the farmers do so, 

 they are at the mercy of the world and its multitude 

 of sharp, unscrupulous tradesmen, instead of being 

 the independent men they might make of them- 

 selves/' 



The result of this movement was the passage of a 

 bill to promote the formation of cooperative indus- 

 trial associations in the different localities of the 

 State to hold local fairs and collect information, for 

 which the State should furnish an amount of money 

 equal to that locally contributed. The bill failed 

 to receive the signature of the Governor, who was 

 perhaps frightened by the financial possibilities it 

 involved. 



Five years later, in 1872, the State Board of Agri- 

 culture published an inflammatory declaration from 

 which the following is taken: 



"The truth is the grain merchants, the hucksters, 

 the middle-men, the shippers, the railroads, the sack 

 makers, the law makers, the assessors and the tax 

 collectors manage to hold the agricultural classes in 

 a condition of servitude unparalleled in a free 

 country. 



