124 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was stones for each plowing time seemed to reveal a new and abun- 

 dant supply, and he called our fields "little pocket handkerchiefs." 

 Of course, he was exercising his Western prerogative of humorous 

 exaggeration but the fact remains that the New England farmer 

 does cidtivate fewer acres, and from two acres often he can produce 

 as much if not more than the western farmer does on 160 acres. 

 The eastern farmer lacks, however, that shoulder to shoulder com- 

 radeship which is so apjiarent in the \Yest. Nearly every western 

 town has a cooperative grain elevator owned by the farmers and no 

 matter how much grain the western farmer produces, he knows 

 he can store it in the elevator or sell it to the elevator and get his 

 money for it. Similar business arrangements in New England 

 would mean a great boon to New England agriculture. 



That farmers can cooperate in Xew England is shown by the 

 town of Sunderland, ]\Iass. Fifty-eight years ago a man raised 

 fifty bushels of onions. His neighbors said he could never sell so 

 many, but he did, and the next year he raised more and sold them 

 and soon his neighbors began to raise onions and they have contin- 

 ued to raise them, and this last year they raised 100,000 bushels of 

 onions. Land has increased in value until it is worth from S200 to 

 S250 per acre. Last year one farmer rented thirty acres to some 

 Polanders and received $900 for the same. The average yield is 

 about 500 bushels per acre but many acres yield 800 bushels and 

 more. They have built their own storehouses at a cost of 844,000. 

 They have a macadam road from the town to the depot, a distance 

 of two and one-half miles, part of it built by the state and part by 

 the toAvn. Before the road was built, fifty bushels of onions was 

 considered a good load to take to the depot, now they carry from 100 

 to 150 bushels. There are less than 2000 inhabitants in the town 

 but they have their sewer system and lighting plant. There are 

 also about fifty farmers who unite and sell their cream, about 250 

 tons annually. A committee of three is chosen who have power to 

 contract for the selling of it all. A third party tests it, and last year 

 in October they received 35 cts. per pound butter fat and 36 cts. in 

 November and December. Their first step toward success was 

 finding out what their land woidd best produce and since then they 

 have continually studied how to jiroduce more and better onions and 

 how to sell them. 



