July, 1910.] 



01 



and\ CO'Operatidn. 



necessary for the labourer to grow his 

 own vegetables in the neighbourhood ol 

 his quarters. The fact that such 

 attempts have not been as successful as 

 was to be desired is due as much to a 

 lack of interest on the part of the 

 labourer as to inadequate provision made 

 by the employer. When the complaint 

 is stated without qualification it is 

 nothing less than sheer monsease, for no 

 business man, nor sugar planter, nor 

 other individual whose means are in- 

 vested in the Territory can possibly 

 have a desire to hinder the ultimate wel- 

 fare of Hawaii. More and more conclu- 

 sive evidence is accumulating to prove 

 the substantial interest which many of 

 our wealthiest citizens are taking in the 

 establishment of a variety of profitable 

 agricultural industries. 



The numerous complaints which are 

 made regarding the lack of sympathy 

 on the part of our various transport- 

 ation companies are likewise not true, 

 except when properly qualified. Trans- 

 portation companies are in the business 

 of carrying freight, and the more freight 

 they have to carry the more profit they 

 can obtain. It is well known that special 

 facilities for carrying freight have been 

 furnished in the case of the pineapple 

 business, and other industries will 

 receive consideration as soon as they are 

 taken up seriously and therefore furnish 

 enough freight to interest the trans- 

 portation companies. It would be con- 

 trary to human nature to expect a trans- 

 portation company to give the same 

 attention to one crate of vegetables, or 

 some other agricultural product, as they 

 would to a large amount of freight 

 coming at regular intervals from some 

 established industry. Even the mishaps 

 which have been reported as occurring 

 in transit to small shipments of agricul- 

 tural products, have often been due to 

 obvious carelessness in packing this 

 produce and in delivering it at a time 

 when delays in shipment would be 

 avoided. In the matter of transport- 

 ation, it will, of course, be necessary to 

 secure some friendly understanding and 

 co-operation between the producers and 

 the transportation companies. The 

 latter cannot be expected to arrange 

 special facilities for carrying freight 

 which is not in definice prospect. On 

 the other hand, the producer is often a 

 man of small means and must secure 

 immediate returns from his produce. 

 He, in turn, cannot wait too long for 

 means to carry his produce safely and 

 cheaply to market. It is a practical 

 certainty, however, that as socn as a 

 determined effort is made to produce 

 larger quantities of general agricultural 



produce suitable means will be provided 

 for carrying this freight to market. 



Article VI. 

 With the development of modern 

 business methods the small producer 

 began to feel his weakness and inability 

 to meet the demands of his environment. 

 The cultivator of a small area has only 

 small quantities of produce, of whatever 

 kind he raises, aud can, therefore, not 

 occupy an important place in the market. 

 He receives no special consideration from 

 buyers or transportation companies, and 

 cannot deal with them in a satis- 

 factory manner. The only solution of 

 this difficulty has been found in co-oper- 

 ation, The work and the methods which 

 it involves should be familiar to every 

 farmer, but, unfortunately, this is not 

 true, particularly for Hawaii. On the 

 mainland, co-operative enterprisesamong 

 farmers at present number among their 

 members more than 3,000,000 individuals, 

 and involve more than half the total 

 number of farms in the United States, 

 The number of co-operative societies in 

 the mainland is nearly 100,000, and these 

 societies are concerned in selliug fruit, 

 vegetables, nuts, small berries, cctton, 

 tobacco, wheat, sweet potatoes, flax, 

 oats, eggs, poultry, milk, honey, wool, 

 live stock, etc. There is scarcely any 

 branch of farming which has not been 

 organized on a co-operative plan in some 

 locality. Co-operation extends not only 

 to the sale of all sorts of agricultural 

 products, but also to the purchase of 

 necessities for farm use. Numerous 

 co-operative stores have been estab- 

 lished under the ownership of farm- 

 ers for purchasing and distributing 

 fertilizers, farm machinery, furniture, 

 seeds and other necessities of the farm. 

 A co-operative wooden mill is in opei'- 

 ation in New Mexico, where 2,000,000 

 pounds of wool are annually manu- 

 factured into clothing, and the clothes 

 are sold to members of the co-operative 

 society at somewhat less than one-half 

 the commercial price of cloths of similar 

 quality. Co-operative banks, insurance 

 companies and telephone companies have 

 been established by farmers and have 

 given excellent satisfaction, together 

 with great economy. There are hundreds 

 of co-operative telephone companies 

 throughout the mainland which fur- 

 nished unlimited service within a radius 

 of fifty miles for from $3'00 to $10 00 per 

 year to each member. 



Enough experience has been had 

 with co-operation among farmers to 

 demonstrate conclusively that any farm 

 enterprise and any necessity of the 

 farm may be successfully managed in 



