544 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



the farmer's business represents one-half of one per cent, of 

 the potato-buyer's business. Consequently, a deal that means 

 100 per cent, to the farmer means one-half of one per cent, to 

 the potato-buyer, and because the deal means very little to the 

 buyer and very much to the farmer, the farmer is at a disad- 

 vantage. -Exactly the same condition prevails in purchasing sup- 

 plies. The farmer is handicapped because of the small amount 

 of business he is doing. A farmer who can use two dozen self- 

 binders can purchase them more cheaply than the man who 

 uses but one. The farmer who can sell many carloads of farm 

 products of one class can get a better price for his products 

 than can the one who has only a wagonload or less to market. 



COOPERATION OR PEASANTRY 



There seems to be but two solutions to the problem of putting 

 the farmer on an equal business basis with those with whom 

 he has business outside of the farm. One is to increase 

 the size of the average farm; the other is to unite the 

 interests of several farmers owning farms of ordinary size 

 for purposes of outside contact, in both buying and selling. 

 The latter plan is decidedly preferable, because it does not 

 involve the landlord and tenant or landlord and hired-help sys- 

 tem, and makes possible the maintenance of the family-sized farm, 

 which is probably one of our most important American insti- 

 tutions. Cooperation will help to make possible the maintenance 

 of the family-sized farm, operated by its owner, longer than it 

 can be maintained in any other way. 



Economy in Cooperation 



Cooperation in marketing and in buying is, we believe, essen- 

 tial to the economical distribution of products. Large quan- 

 tities of uniformly good products can be sold much more advan- 

 tageously than can smaller quantities of products, each sample 

 of which may be good in itself but which when brought together 

 are not uniform. When every farm was manufacturing its 

 own butter, and each of the hundred or more farmers in the 

 community was trying to sell butter of a different quality, the 

 price of butter was comparatively low. Where butter is manu- 

 factured in one plant, the manager of the creamery has at his 



