12 Cooperation in Agriculture 



which the producer receives for his product and that 

 which the consumer pays. It has been shown by Secre- 

 tary Wilson 1 that when the consumer buys food for a dol- 

 lar, the producer receives about fifty cents, the other half 

 dollar representing the costs and profits of distribution. 

 This enormous addition to the cost of farm products, 

 equaling the total cost of production plus the farmer's 

 profit, is the price which the nation pays to the present 

 agencies of distribution. 



Since the beginning of commercial agriculture, there 

 has been an agitation against the abuses of the distributing 

 system. Sometimes corrective legislation has resulted, 

 again it has been followed by the formation of associa- 

 tions of farmers through which supplies may be purchased 

 or the crops distributed and marketed. Such efforts 

 of the rural classes to correct the injustices which they 

 have had to face have been continuous but not systemati- 

 cally directed nor organized. The Order of the Patrons 

 of Husbandry, formed in 1867, the Agricultural Congress 

 in 1870, the Farmers' National Congress in 1880, the 

 Farmers' Alliances about 1875, the Brothers of Freedom 

 formed in the South in 1882, the Farmers' Union, the 

 Agricultural Wheel, the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Asso- 

 ciation, the Western Alliance, the Patrons of Industry, 

 including both laborers and farmers, the New England 

 League, the National Farmers' League, the Citizens' 

 Alliance, and finally the People's party formed between 

 1880 and 1892 were organized to bring about better rural 

 economic conditions by influencing legislation and to 

 regulate the industries with which agriculture comes in 



1 Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1911. 



