166 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar, 190 | 
self-respecting, well-to-do men, representing but a portion of one district of | | 
colony, should expect to throw its loss on the dant se of the rest, of | 
community (for that is what Government assistance means) seems to img!) 
weakness of purpose, a childish giving-in to one knock-down blow, which ™"} 
private individual would fall little short of being contemptible. val 
Let the farmers rise to the occasion now that they have the opportully} 
afforded them by the reduced railway rates. Fodder is scarce in many pat" | 
the colony despite the late rains. Let them hasten to send away whatevel &%} 
can spare, and, satisfied with a moderate profit, have the satisfaction that, ie 
all the difficulty about the hay, they have helped themselves, and are beholdlt 
to none for that help. a 
a 
= ee 
Co-operation. 
Unver the present wasteful system of disposing of the produce of a || 
each individual producer makes use of animal power far in excess of wh! ool] 
absolutely required to effect’‘the object in view. The same thing holds 5° | 
with respect to fencing, clearing, stumping, and many other works on the ™)} 
We see strong men toiling at a work single-handed which, with the help ® | 
couple of neighbours, could be done in a quarter of the time and without ® 
of the exhausting labour otherwise required. As an illustration whie f 
commend itself to all scrub farmers, let us take the work of burnidg ol 
Sometimes a lucky burn will leave very little after-labour to be done, but? it 
a very bad burn happens, and eyery stick almost has to be handled. A wl 
working alone must do a tremendous lot of axe-work to enable him to pile a 
the timber in heaps. He has to cut the logs into lengths such as his stteMes) 
is equal to carrying. He will thus make but a small impression by the © 3] 
the day on a five-acre patch of badly burnt scrub. Now, suppose that he es 
dozen neighbours all employed at the same work, or even on a | 
class of work, such as stumping, pulling or husking corn, dig) 
potatoes, or planting some crop. If these men would all combine 
assist each other, it is clear that the work of burning off wou wt 
enormously lightened. A tree which the individual would have to cut al 
small, to enable him to deal with it, would be picked up bodily by si shat | 
and carried off with ease, all the axework being saved. It might be argue i) 
while these men are helping their neighbour, the work on their own farms ‘| 
a standstill. So it is—for a day or two, but now those who assisted the io} 
man are in their turn assisted to plant, gather the crop, bale their hay, % «| 
do any other work which may be pressing, and, so far from their having 10° " 1 
time, their own work is far more expeditiously done by the assistance” 4] 
given. Again, take the case of a man having ten acres of lucerne cut aD@ }y) 
ready to cart in. Everyone knows the disastrous effect of heavy ae | 
lucerne hay lying in the field. Rain is threatening, and the individual woe 
himself and his horses from dawn to dark, and then finds that he cannot si 
crop ; but the neighbours come along with their teams, and the whole 18 ar 
got in before the storm. This is the commencement of co-operation, am i | 
easy to see how it works beneficially to all concerned. Now we g0! ist } 
farther, and come to marketing. In the neighbourhood of towns Py} 
common thing for a man to yoke up a horse, or perhaps two, to on ah 
three or four bags of corn, some potatoes, cabbages, eggs, &e 4 
takes the whole day probably, and he expends sufficient labour Oh t 
business to perform double the work. His neighbours do the same tf if 
Now, if we count up the hours so lost by each individual, reckon the ¥) p} 
which all those horses and men could haye got through in the day, and 4 ish 
this loss the probable expenditure of a few shillings on creature combot™ | 
= 
ss 
eS 
