CHAPTER VI 

 BREEDERS' AND GROWERS' ASSOCIATIONS 



THE cooperative method of conducting the business 

 side of agriculture may be applied in a greater or less 

 degree to the different phases of production ; to the manu- 

 facture of the products of the farm, such as butter, cheese, 

 wine, oil, and similar products ; to the handling, sale, and 

 distribution of farm products ; to the purchase of supplies, 

 such as fertilizers, machinery, spraying, and packing 

 material ; to rural credit ; and to miscellaneous services 

 which touch the farmer, such as irrigation, the telephone, 

 insurance, and electric power. This division of the efforts 

 of an association is arbitrary and somewhat artificial, 

 because any one of these functions may be handled singly, 

 or more than one function, like production and sale and 

 the purchase of supplies, may be combined in one asso- 

 ciation. 



The cooperative method has reached its most effective 

 development in the handling and marketing of farm prod- 

 ucts and in the purchase of supplies. These efforts affect 

 the farmers' pocket book ; they influence the business 

 methods of agriculture visually, while the benefits that 

 spring from other lines of activity can often be seen only 

 through their indirect effect on better farming or better 

 business methods. There has been less cooperative effort 

 in crop production and in the incidental features already 



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