I 
American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS v 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man .”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 112 For the Week Ending December 22/ 1923 Number 25 
Cooperation Is More Than Marketing 
A Wednesday Evening A. A. Radio Talk Broadcast from WEAR 
P ASSING back for a moment into the earlier 
days of agriculture in the United States, we 
might roughly classify the progress of agri¬ 
culture into five stages. First there wasthe 
pioneer stage. The farmers produced and 
marketed their products and regulated their 
home and social life entirely on an individual basis. 
This was a period of self-sufficing economy. The 
farm not only fed but clothed its workers. Con¬ 
tact with business as we now know it was slight. 
Then we came to the period of development, when 
with the growth of larger communities the 
matters of rural interest slowly centered, although 
farmers and their families were still largely, 
individualistic. 
Later came the period of invention 
and the application of such inventions 
as the mowing-machine, the binder 
and such power farming-machines as 
tractors, reapers and threshing ma¬ 
chines. A few years ago we reached the 
stage of specialization, and this is 
still pronounced to-day by our great 
cotton, tobacco, wheat, potato, apple 
and live-stock areas. Now we find 
ourselves well into the present stage 
of agriculture—the cooperative stage 
—when our farm life is cooperative 
in thought and action on the bigger 
problems of the day as well as co¬ 
operative in the buying and selling 
of farm supplies and farm products. 
This is as it should be. With the 
passing of the successive stages, it 
has become more and more apparent 
to farmers that individual action, 
except in matters of production, 
could not give to agriculture as an 
industry the true expression that it of 
necessity must have. 
The progress of cooperative mar¬ 
keting is indicative of cooperative 
thinking and acting on the part of 
rural people which is typical of the newer stage of 
agricultural development. Necessity is the mother 
of cooperative organization and to that incentive 
we owe practically all of our successful coopera¬ 
tive associations. Along with the strong com¬ 
modity associations in New Jersey—brought into 
existence because its members realized that they 
must reduce the waste in marketing in order to 
make a living—we find that this same spirit is 
being manifest in the attack on other farm prob¬ 
lems. Cooperative marketing associations such 
as our Jersey Fruit Growers’ Cooperative Associa¬ 
tion and the Atlantic Coast Poultry Producers’ 
Association are ventures into the business field. 
They have been quite successful. The fruit¬ 
growers and the poultrymen have for the most 
part received a better return for their labor and 
by the reduction of waste in the marketing 
methods they have made more equitable prices 
for consumers as well as for themselves. The 
consumer always gains when produce of mediocre 
quality stays home. 
This success in cooperative marketing, however, 
carries with it as indicated before cooperation in 
thought on other, and sometimes more important, 
problems in the development of a better rural 
By LOUIS A. COOLEY 
Secretary, New Jersey Federation County Boards 
of Agriculture 
life. There are the problems of rural education, 
equitable taxation and proper representation of 
farmers’ interests in the legislature, which are 
now being considered. The experiences in co¬ 
operation in the selling and buying field have 
brought the farm men and women to an under¬ 
standing of mutual problems which was unknown 
in the earlier stages through which agriculture 
has passed in this country. 
Take, for instance, the one important subject of 
rural schools. The country cross-roads school 
where our forefathers secured their education is 
still in existence in many sections, although per¬ 
haps not so much in evidence in New Jersey as 
in some of the more sparsely populated States. 
However, the people in the cities unconsciously 
cooperated years ago in providing the means to 
give their children a better education. As cities 
grew in size, the inhabitants were compelled to 
find a way to educate the ever-increasing number 
of children. They were forced unknowingly to 
be efficient. 
In the country small school-houses and old 
methods of teaching are still in effect. The 
necessity has not been as keen for new school 
buildings or other educational necessities, includ¬ 
ing teachers and equipment, as in the case of our 
city friends. Cooperation in this way in the cities 
has developed an excellent school system for the 
city boys and girls, until now we find the ad¬ 
vantages enjoyed by the city people are greater 
than in our rural districts. 
This same cooperative experience has kindled a 
community feeling which is showing itself in a 
united farm public opinion for better schools. 
It will carry its lesson in the years to come to an 
extent which will mean a more progressive and 
happier home and a finer community life for our 
non-urban citizens. This will react to the benefit 
of all classes of citizens in America. 
We might mention a similar development of 
farm public opinion which is slowly and surely 
coming about on the subject of taxation. I might 
quote a hundred official investigations which 
show the inequalities in taxation and which 
further show a divided opinion among farmers 
on this important subject. The spirit of coopera¬ 
tion which has helped our farmers to pool their 
opinions as well as their crops is now showing 
itself in unified thought towards just rates and 
equitable taxation for all classes in 
accordance with their business and 
ability to pay. What has been said of 
taxes applies as well to freight rates. 
This concentration of thought and 
action has already become apparent 
on legislative matters in recent years. 
In New Jersey and other leading 
States, and subsequently in Wash¬ 
ington, united effort on the part of 
farmers was entirely responsible for 
the passage of legislation that pro¬ 
hibited the use of vegetable oils as a 
substitute for butter fat in the manu¬ 
facture of condensed and evaporated 
milk in spite of powerful opposition 
by the manufacturers. This was of 
mutual benefit. It increased the sale 
of real milk. It increased the nutri¬ 
tive value of milk products, protecting 
the consumers, chief among which 
are the younger generation. Similar 
action secured protection from adul¬ 
terated ice cream in New Jersey. 
Wise farm public opinion will 
always give the greatest good to the 
greatest number. Referring for the 
moment to the cooperative selling 
movement, take for example the 
Jersey Fruit Growers’ Cooperative Association. 
The membership represented this last year 10 per 
cent, of the commercial peach production in the 
State. Three years ago the members of this 
association sold their fruit individually and upon 
whatever market and to the dealer that met their 
convenience or pleasure. They pooled their 
knowledge and their strength for the marketing 
of a finer grade of fruit and the policy of that 
organization is a cross-section of the thought of 
those cooperating. 
The same thing might be said for the Atlantic 
Coast Poultry Producers, the membership of 
which represents 285,000 laying hens in New 
Jersey and adjacent States. The policy of that 
organization is an index of the thought of the 
poultrymen who own this tremenduous number 
of hens. 
The farmers, who have expressed that satisfac¬ 
tion which comes from united action, will not stop 
here. It is not human nature to do so. Thus it 
can be seen how easily the same line of reasoning 
is being carried through to the consideration of 
their homes, school problems, taxes and legisla¬ 
tion. A coherent farm public opinion on the 
matters of the day is now coming to be a reality. 
“Later came the period of invention ...” bringing with it the tractors to replace 
horses and oxen, and mechanical loaders to eliminate back-breaking hand methods. 
