LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR POSSIBILITIES 135 



"Although no method of preventing rust has yet been discovered, 

 there are two things to do which may delay its attack upon the beds. 

 One is thorough cultivation before and during the cutting season, the 

 soil being stirred at least once in ten days to turn undeveloped rust 

 spores up to the sun, so that they may come to life and die for lack 

 of a plant to feed upon ; and the other is the cutting of everything in 

 the shape of asparagus that comes up on or around the cutting beds 

 in order that no shoot of asparagus may attain the age of ten days 

 during the cutting season, whether marketable or not." 



The attitude which this organization takes toward growth and 

 expansion is most interesting: 



"This Association is peculiar. Its meetings are entirely informal 

 and more interesting on that account. It has never struggled for a 

 large membership, because it has no expense to speak of, and there- 

 fore, the incentive of financial necessity is lacking. There has 

 never been a time since the Association came into existence when 

 the treasury was not in easy circumstances. If those who are growing 

 asparagus would rather stay on the outside, we have no quarrel with 

 them. We venture to state, however, that there is not a member 

 who attended the field day exercises without feeling that he got 

 several times his money's worth in actual information." 



Is it not true that many an association would enjoy better success 

 if they had more of this spirit .^^ In too many cases, the struggle for 

 large membership brings in men whose support is half-hearted and 

 whose loyalty is readily undermined. 



TRANSPORTATION 



Local organizations are frequently of great value in securing im- 

 provements in transportation service. The story of South Lima, 

 New York, is best told in the following extract from a letter: 



"Our train service was very bad; in fact, express goods were 

 refused at our station, and not enough switch room was available 

 to load our produce. We tried many times to get the Erie Railroad 

 to provide more room to place cars for loading, but the only results 

 were promises with no intention of fulfilment. We urged our Grow- 

 ers' and Shippers' Association secretary to make the appeal to the 

 Public Service Commission, with the result of an expenditure of 

 about five thousand dollars in improvements, with all the switch 

 room requested at that time, but far short of our present needs from 

 our much increased acreage." 



