785 
Difference Between Corporation and Co¬ 
operation 
Third Prize Article 
EXPERIENCE ABROAD.—In Denmark as a 
young man I learned the difference between corpora¬ 
tions and co-operation for farmers. Corporations 
were tried first in Denmark, because it was the only 
form of organization known, and it made a good 
many farm organizations go to pieces. The Danish 
farmers have since learned to adopt co-operation, 
and today all farm organizations are co-operative. 
The difference is that corporations are controlled by 
the capital or stock vote, and dominated by a few 
men. The other members have little or nothing to 
say about the management. They become dissatis¬ 
fied with the selfishness of the few who control, and 
the organization goes to pieces. 
MEMBERSHIP CONTROL.—Co-operation is the 
opposite in management to corporation. In co-oper¬ 
ation the members control by one vote and no more 
for each member. Co-operation is self-government. 
It is government of the members by the members for 
the members. The Danish farmer has learned what 
true co-operation is. He knows that it is the very 
heart’s blood of agricultural life and business. It 
has broadened the Danish farmer's vision. lie now 
looks ahead for emergencies, and is prepared to meet 
them, while before the days of co-operative organi¬ 
zation the trouble came over him like a thief in the 
night. 
AN UNDESIRABLE SYSTEM.—The New York 
farmers have not yet learned what co-operation is. 
They are yet tied to corporations. The Dairymen’s 
League is a corporation, like the ones that broke up 
the early Danish farm organizations. It is voted 
by the stock and controlled by a few men. The 
members have no means of expressing their choice of 
men or measures. At Utica not more than one-third 
voted for the new plan, but the spokesman said it 
was unanimous. The officers were appointed and a 
lawyer is made president. This is not co-operation, 
and it is queer to me that farmers of this great State 
should think it is. The Country Milk Company was 
not co-operation. The members did not organize it, 
or vote for it, or run it. They don’t know even yet 
how much they lost in it. If we call such manage¬ 
ment co-operation we are not fair to co-operation. 
That work is corporation, not co-operation. 
A CONTRAST IN MANAGEMENT.—In co-opera¬ 
tion a committee of the best members would be ap¬ 
pointed by all the members to prepare plans and 
specifications and estimates, and then every member 
would have a chance to vote “yes” or "no” in his own 
branch, after all the definite details were laid before 
him. When the members run their own organization 
they will have co-operation, and I shall be the first 
man to give it a hand; but it is a contrary thing to 
co-operation for a few men to run an organization 
in their own way. If it is not selfish now it soon 
will be. 
REAL CO-OPERATION.—My plan is for a real co¬ 
operative organization. That means: (1) Voluntary 
membership: (21 equal voice in the management; 
one man. one vote; (3) equal share to the members 
in the fruits of the organization, according to their 
contributions to it. 
Make a definite plan through a committee of the 
best members and experts in the business; adopt a 
fixed policy and stick to it. 
Incorporate co-operative local branches in the 
country and erect plants where needed. Organize 
and federate these local co-operative corporations. 
Elect a board and officers annually for the central 
unit by vote of the members. We must have an elec¬ 
tion committee to make a convenient way for the 
members to vote in their local branches by ballot, 
and thereby develop a member's interest in liis or¬ 
ganization. In no other way can we have true co¬ 
operation. 
The officers must not be allowed to make by-laws. 
Reserve this power for the membership exclusively. 
The directors, both in the local and in the central 
organizations, should be directed to appoint a busi¬ 
ness manager for each, to conduct all the business. 
The central unit should be the sole agency for the 
sale of all milk of its members. There should be no 
subsidiaries and only one organization. True co-op¬ 
eration is economic. 
Each member should have a contract with his local 
company, and the local should have a contract with 
the central unit. These contracts must be binding 
for a given rime, but subject to withdrawal at given 
times, so as to make the membership voluntary. 
The organization must be responsible for the sale 
of all of the milk to give each member equal benefits, 
otherwise it is not co-operative. For this it must 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
have a few well-located manufacturing plants in the 
county to manufacture milk in time of surplus, and 
a city receiving station or plant to sell and deliver 
milk to small dealers. It should collect the bills 
twice a month, and send the entire remittance and re¬ 
turn to the local managers to be checked up and dis¬ 
tributed to producers. The funds for the central 
unit should be assessed against the locals and paid by 
them. No funds should be collected through the 
dealers. 
All funds should be collected by a percentage as¬ 
sessment on the milk by the local organizations, 
after an estimate budget has been presented to the 
members and approved by them. The capital for 
plants should be raised as nearly as possible by mem¬ 
bers. An investment, no matter how small, by the 
member, in his own business, makes the organization 
stronger. 
To vote intelligently the members must have full 
and accurate information. A full report of all meet¬ 
ings must be kept, and members have free hand to 
look over the reports at any time. A fair synopsis 
of every committee meeting should be published for 
the information of members. 
Accounts must be audited regularly and full item¬ 
ized business and financial reports made. Full and 
accurate information and publicity are essential to 
true co-operation. p. h. norberg. 
Plain Farmers on League Plans 
Extracts from Prize Essays 
Take Care of Local Plant 
Besides being cumbersome and expensive, two organi¬ 
zations would tend to defeat the aims of the Dairymen’s 
League. The purpose has been to sell all the milk 
collectively. To do this more satisfactorily the milk 
was all placed in one agency to sell. Complete unity 
must be the keynote of the League's success. Two 
organizations destroy this unity. For the very reason 
the perfect co-operation is so essential to the well-being 
of the farmer, no successful local co-operative plant 
should be in any way disturbed. 
Elimination of inordinate distributors’ profits would 
appeal eloquently to the average consumer. It has al¬ 
ready been demonstrated that milk can be sold in New 
York at a much lower figure than that commonly 
charged by dealers, and if the producers could place the 
product on the wholesale markets themselves, with one 
profit instead of many, the demand should and probably 
would take care of itself. edith anderson. 
Ashville, N. Y. 
Right to the Point 
After all that The R. N.-Y. has done and is doing for 
agricultural interests, we farmers should hardly need 
the incentive of a prize offer to express our opinions. The 
members of the Dairymen’s League have been encour¬ 
aged to purchase and equip their own plants for handling 
milk and have to a great extent accomplished this. The 
new movement being agitated seems to be to do away 
with these plants just recently acquired and give up 
what we have gained of independence to trust again to 
the honesty of a set of middlemen. Let us keep our own 
local equipment and let the League establish receiving 
stations in New York City with honest men hired by 
the League to superintend the receiving and distributing 
of the milk. The city station not to be required to han¬ 
dle any surplus milk. The surplus milk, if any, to be re¬ 
tained at the local plants and manufactured there into 
butter and cheese for local consumption. This would 
save any freight on shipments of surplus milk. The 
problem of surplus milk will be largely solved by the 
greater demand for fluid milk when sold at the reduced 
price at which it can be delivered when the extravagance 
and waste of the preseut system are eliminated. 
Pulaski, N. Y. Andrew j. sperling. 
Do Not Make It Complicated 
The present management of the Dairymen’s League is 
too expensive and does not get results. There are too 
many officers drawing big salaries, and too many confer¬ 
ences with dealers. Let the dealers alone. Do not chase 
after them. There are too many conventions, with big 
expense. I don’t think the proposed plan has the con¬ 
fidence of the dairymen. It is too complicated ; too big 
an undertaking, and takes the business and management 
out of dairymen’s hands and places it in a very few, who 
are given too much power. The overhead expense will 
be enormous, and I doubt if we will get as much out of 
the milk as we do now. Sell the milk to anyone who 
wants it. and pays cash for same-—dealers, storekeepers 
or peddlers. If there is a surplus of milk being shipped, 
notify some of the plants in the country to manufacture, 
and if the manufactured products do not net as much 
as fluid milk. let. those that are getting the most 
divide the difference. For financing, deduct a certain 
amount per cwt. Let the dairymen own and manage 
their own plants, equipped to make butter, cheese or 
pasteurize milk to ship. There are a great many of 
these plants now, mauy more were in process of con¬ 
struction until they were called to a halt by the League’s 
plan. The dairymen are well able to manage their own 
plants. 
I lave the League build or own a big distributing plant 
in New York City and other cities in the territory. Hire 
a competent manager of milk at the local plants. Let 
the directors be elected by each League member, to be 
voted for in their own local meetings. Let the directors 
oversee the city plants and the business manager, who 
should sell the milk. The price of milk to be determined 
by cost of production plus a fair profit. h. t. field. 
Oneida, N. Y. 
I do not believe in the purchase of receiving plants 
now owned by the large milk distributors, nor the signing 
of any paper to the effect that the Dairymen’s League 
will not interfere in New York City with the dealers’ 
end of the business. Any radical changes that are or 
may hereafter be contemplated should be voted upon by 
the members of the League. The directors of the several 
districts will then have instructions to adopt a plan 
that will pay cost plus a reasonable profit. Sign no 
agreements to keep out of the New York market or any 
other market. Each League branch should be allowed 
to do as the members think best with its own local 
affairs. The business accounts of the League should 
be audited at frequent intervals, and the books and gen¬ 
eral business affairs open to the inspection of any branch 
of the League through a request of its officers after a 
majority vote for it. w. J. durkee. 
Smith Basin, N. Y. 
.1 would like to. say a word in regard to the milk situ¬ 
ation in this section. I cannot see anything fair in the 
situation hem At the time of the strike in January I 
was getting .$5 per day from the coudenser.v, but with¬ 
drew my milk with the rest of the League members. I 
had to take my milk about one mile to separate it, so 
dried up my cows as soon as possible. The first of April 
I wanted to send again, but my milk was rejected. 
I here are between 20 and 80 farmers around here in the 
same predicament. I only live two miles from Borden’s 
condensed milk plant. M by is not every League member 
protected? One should have as good a market for milk 
as another. henry e. link. 
Sinclairville, N. Y. 
From inquiry at the League office it was learned 
that complaint had reached there, and the Borden’s 
( ompany had promised to investigate when names of 
complaining patrons were furnished. 
To establish a price of milk on the cost of butter and 
cheese is not right. The baker does not set the price of a 
loaf by the cookies that he makes. Everything must be 
figured from the base up. and the base for butter and 
cheese is milk The price of butter and cheese should 
be figured on the cost of milk, and not the reverse. The 
price ot milk should be based on the cost of feed and 
cows and labor If the League gives up this principle it 
gl n? 1,p e ™ r J; thlu S- EUGENE JOHNSON. 
Glean, N. Y. 
Prospects in Southern New Jersey 
At the meeting of our executive committee at Bridge- 
ton last week it seemed to be the impression that there 
would be a good set of peaches, as little injury has been 
reported. The apple bloom is somewhat irregular, as 
some trees which bore heavily last season are light with 
buds. I he apples in this section are just coming into 
full bloom (April —1) and the orchards are looking very 
beautiful. Tractors are coming into general use oil 
farms large enough to warrant the expense, as thev 
seem to enable the farmers to get the work done. \ 
great effort has been made to kill off the apple aphis 
of which a very heavy crop was .started. One firm near 
here is reported to have invested $1,500 in Black Leaf 
40, and most orchardists have used from $100 to $300 
for that supply alone. 
It seems to be costing more every year to begin the 
season, yet the farmers are expected to raise more and 
bring down the cost of things to eat. How it is to be 
done with the increased expenses of labor and materials 
we would like greatly to know. In spite of the same 
or greater prospective cost of growing tomatoes the 
prices <)ffered are away below last year, from $17 to 
1* with the result that the number of acres contracted 
for will be much reduced. As an example, one firm, 
which grew 250 acres last year, will grow only as few 
as possible this, and only a few fields requiring that 
rotation, less than one-fifth. In this section those who 
are contracting are afraid to take the chances of the 
open market, which can be continued bv the canners 
as soon as the crop begins to come freely. * 
The Japanese beetle infection in three townships in 
this county is giving the sugar corn growers many 
anxious thoughts, as corn from the infected farms will 
require very careful inspection before it can be moved 
in interstate traffic. This is a very important money 
crop in the river front district of this county, and many 
hundred thousands of ears are sent during the height 
of the season to New York and Philadelphia. This new 
pest is such a general feeder that it will be exceedingly 
hard and expensive to keep it down, and as is usual 
with such things, they neglect to import the predatory 
insects with the pests. Too much time has been lost 
finding out how to fight it. and we cannot blame our 
entomologists for what they cannot learn except In¬ 
experience, which is said to be the best teacher, but 
sometimes exceedingly expensive, for example, the San 
Jose scale and Gypsy moth. Our farmers are going 
ahead hopefully as usual, risking all they have in many 
instances on the coming season, and we certainly hope 
for good crops and prices, but some of us are feeling 
very anxious about the latter. We certainly cannot 
expect the prices received last year, and yet we cannot 
see how the expenses can be met with prices reduced 
to pre-war times, with short labor hours and higher 
Wages. H. G. TAYLOR. 
Secretary New Jersey Horticultural Society. 
Apple Aphids Wear Overcoats 
So far as I have been able to discover, uo one has re¬ 
corded an experience in which the aphid*? infesting the 
apple have been subjected to low temperatures after 
hatching. It would seem that such minute, soft-bodied 
insects, feeding on practically bare buds, would require 
a considerable degree of warmth for continued existence. 
Last week I had an opportunity to make an interesting 
observation on this point. We were putting the dormant 
spray on a 10-year-old orchard. The buds, though still 
compact, were swelling and shooting the green. The 
mercury was up to 66. At least three-fourth*: of the 
countless aphis eggs had hatched, and the insects were 
clustered deep on the buds. Thursday afternoon a rain 
set in, becoming so hard we had to stop work. The 
mercury dropped rapidly ami by midnight reached 25. 
Next morning a furious storm of snow and sleet was 
raging. The precipitation ceased about noon, but violent 
gales continued throughout that day and Saturday. The 
mercury did not get up to freezing till Saturday morn¬ 
ing. so that for 30 hours the temperature was below 
freezing constantly, and for part of the time as low as 
25. A careful examination of the unsprayed trees 
showed the aphids unharmed, continuing their pernicious 
work, and apparently not even chilled. 
Bucks Co., I‘a. thed pershing. 
