1272 
agency can establish more direct rela- 
tions with consumers, and maintain those 
relations more steadily, than can an in- 
dividual or a local association. 
Co-operation With Consumers 
The many consumeis’ leagues, spring- 
ing up in the more densely populated dis- 
tricts, afford our opportunity. Why 
should not the producer and consumer co- 
operate? They can, if they will both or- 
ganize. Central selling agencies and cen- 
tral purchasing agencies will be familiar 
features of the near future. The mayor 
of Indianapolis, with his 900 consumers, 
has pointed the way. Of course, this 
idea will be declared absurd on ‘‘com- 
mercial row.” The railroads said gov- 
ernment regulation was impracticable and 
unjust. Now they want more of it The 
trusts declared the Sherman Anti-Trust 
Law a dead letter. Now they are making 
haste to adjust themselves to its require- 
ments. The hack driver decried the elec- 
tric line trom the steam railroad station. 
Now he collects fares on the same elec- 
trie line, and doesn’t get his coat spat- 
tered with mud. Changes of business 
methods gradually work out their own 
adjustments, without serious injury to 
any class. 
Other Examples of Widespread 
Co-operation 
California Fruit Growers’ Exchange is 
not the only successful example of co- 
operative distribution on a large scale. 
In Holland thousands of egg producers 
market through central organizations. 
Grain farmers of the Central West have 
their central shipping association. Nu- 
merous examples might be cited. Nearer 
home, though not embracing so many dif- 
ferent communities, is the Puyallup and 
Sumner Fruit Growers’ Association, in 
the state of Washington. That organiza- 
tion, under the conspicuously able man- 
agement of Senator W. H. Paulhamus, 
has long been an object lesson in success- 
ful co-operation. Long after Senator Paul- 
hamus’ fame as a statesman shall have 
faded from the public memory, he will 
still be quoted as the man who made the 
Puyallup valley worth $1,000 an acre, 
through his efficient exploitation and 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
marketing of the lowly evergreen black- 
berry 
Growth of Movement for Wider 
Co-operation 
In California the deciduous fruit in- 
terests are seeking to organize on lines 
of California Fruit Growers’ Exchange. 
It is no infant’s task to merge all their 
divergent interests. Happily, the bur- 
den has fallen on J. W Jeffrey, manager 
of the Deciduous Fruit League of Sacra- 
mento, and late Commissioner of Horti- 
culture of that state. His 30 years’ effi- 
cient and valiant service for co-operation 
is a guaranty that the cause will not lag 
under his guidance. 
Central Selling Agency for Northwest 
Apples 
In Washington and Oregon the 
apple growers are feeling their way to- 
ward one another. Three years ago, when 
I began to agitate a growers’ central sell- 
ing agency for Northwest apples, I was 
voted a dreamer. It was argued that if a 
central selling agency could even be start- 
ed it would quickly collapse before the 
problem how to handle all the apples of 
the Northwest in one pool, in view of the 
mutual jealousies of various localities. 
Of course, no idea of attempting such a 
thing was contemplated by us. Other 
equally unreal men of straw were set up 
by those whose zeal to discover obstacles 
in the pathway of co-operation overshad- 
owed their fund of information. 
In my judgment, organization of our 
agricultural class, for a more compre- 
hensive system of co-operative distribu- 
tion, is one of the most important works 
to which our public-spirited citizens can 
address their efforts. There is great in- 
lerest, nowadays, in the problem how to 
better social conditions of the farm, how 
to get people back to the land. The 
banker, the agricultural college and the 
commercial club have joined to find a so- 
lution. They hope to solve the problem 
by popularizing agricultural education, 
and teaching the farmer how he may ex- 
tract more from the soil. Leaders of the 
propaganda overlook the fact that the 
most potent organization to effect better 
methods of farming better methods of 
