ORGANIZATION 131 



tion or dealing with huge corporate interests, a large 

 overhead organization of farmers is necessary. The 

 New England Milk Producers' Association is a wide- 

 spread organization, with a large membership and an 

 ample treasury, and has been a veritable godsend to the 

 New England dairy farmers during the emergency cre- 

 ated by the war. But the permanent effectiveness of 

 such an organization among milk producers anywhere 

 can be assured only when there exists a multitude of 

 local dairymen's clubs or associations which, indeed, 

 include practically all the individual dairymen in each 

 community. The " local " is the strength of any as- 

 sociated effort. The local farmers' exchange, the local 

 egg circles, the local apple growers' association, the 

 local Grange, the local school, the local church these 

 are the very bedrock of permanent and effective organ- 

 ization of rural agencies. The overhead organization 

 should not be composed of individuals but should be a 

 union of federation of locals. Local unions may be 

 combined into district unions (not on a county basis un- 

 less the county forms a natural marketing area), state 

 unions and national unions. There may also be re- 

 gional unions. 



III. ORGANIZATION FOR OBJECTIVES 



This is a very important phase of organization, al- 

 though at first thought it may not interest the farmers. 

 It means simply cooperative effort to reach some defi- 

 nite aim by bringing to bear upon it all the forces that 

 are available. It may take the form of a " drive " for 

 getting all the farmers in a certain apple growing re- 

 gion to spray fruit trees, or to increase production of a 

 certain crop. Or it may be a little more ambitious, tak- 

 ing the form of what might be called a " development 



