20 Cooperation in Agriculture 



they are to succeed when associated with one another. 

 It is equally important that the membership be a stable 

 one and that the farm lands are not frequently changing 

 hands, a condition which often operates against the suc- 

 cess of the cooperative movement in the newer sections 

 of the country. If the products vary widely on account 

 of differences in the soil, in climate, or other environmental 

 conditions, the grades are not uniform and the producers 

 cannot easily be held in a common organization. The 

 efforts that are frequently made to have a single organiza- 

 tion cover a wide territory are, therefore, not likely to 

 succeed. It is desirable from every point of view that 

 each rural community and each individual should retain 

 its individuality to the greatest possible extent, that it 

 should not have local pride and ambition stifled by too 

 general a mixture with other sections, and that it should 

 be encouraged to build up a local reputation for its prod- 

 ucts that distinguishes it from other communities. The 

 vitality of the country, as Professor Bailey has forcefully 

 pointed out, depends on local and individual initiative, 

 and any effort towards organization that fails to recognize 

 this principle is fundamentally unsound. There have 

 been many attempts to amalgamate the growers of a single 

 crop in different sections into one large organization just 

 as the Knights of Labor formerly attempted to amalga- 

 mate different laboring men into one central organization. 

 None of these efforts have succeeded. The apple-growers 

 of one section may be encouraged to organize to prepare 

 the fruit for market and for other purposes that are local 

 in character ; the growers of another valley a few miles 

 distant where the varieties are similar but the style and 



