250 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



enal in its value. The farmers in the region affected by the 

 boll weevil, in the course of the efforts to fight it, have succeeded 

 in developing a most scientific husbandry, so that in many 

 places the boll weevil became a blessing in disguise. Not only did 

 the industry of farming become of very much greater economic 

 value in its direct results, but it became immensely more interest- 

 ing to thousands of families. The meetings at which the new 

 subjects of interest were discussed grew to have a distinct social 

 value, while with the farmers were joined the merchants and 

 bankers of the neighborhood. It is needless to say that every 

 such successful effort to organize the farmer gives a great stim- 

 ulus to the admirable educational work which is being done in 

 the southern states, as elsewhere, to prepare young people for an 

 agricultural life. It is greatly to be wished that the communities 

 whence these students are drawn and to which they either return 

 or should return, could be co-operatively organized; that is, 

 that associations of farmers could be organized, primarily for 

 business purposes, but also with social ends in view. This 

 woiild mean that the returned students from the institutions 

 of technical learning would find their environment prepared 

 to profit to the utmost by the improvements in technical meth- 

 ods which they had learned. 



The people of our farming regions must be able to combine 

 among themselves as the most efficient means of protecting 

 their industry from the highly organized interests which now 

 surround them on every side. A vast field is open for work by 

 co-operative associations of farmers in dealing with the relation 

 of the farm to transportation and to the distribution and manu- 

 facture of raw materials. It is only through such combination 

 that American farmers can develop to the full their economic 

 and social power. Combination of this kind has, in Denmark, 

 for instance, resulted in bringing the people back to the land, 

 and has enabled the Danish peasant to compete in extraordinary 

 fashion, not only at home but in foreign countries, with all rivals. 



