THE FARMER'S FORUM
The Farmer's Forum The Co-Operative Society Is Best for The Business of Farming CHARLES A. LYMAN, chairman of the legislative committee of the Wisconsin Society of Equity, in an address before...
...6) A saving in the cost of their agricultural requirements or securing a greater proportion of the dollar paid by the consumer for farm produce will increase the prosperity of the farmer...
...Land ain't as cheap as it used to be...
...The relatively few instances of conspicuous success in selling pure bred live stock and pedigree grains means, little to them...
...Every one of them failed because the farmers did not understand either the spirit or the working details of co-operative organization.' "Here are some of the Equity's arguments: Granted that (1) farmers must organize to succeed in their rural activities on the co-operative, one man, one vote plan, as employed in European countries, in the California Fruit Growers' Exchange and in various other successful American organizations, then (2) there should be a financial incentive to induce farmers to organize...
...Alfalfa will improve the land and at the same time produce more food for livestock than any other crop grown...
...It has been found that in continuous grain growing five times as much nitrogen as the crop uses is lost from the soil...
...The Farmer's Forum The Co-Operative Society Is Best for The Business of Farming CHARLES A. LYMAN, chairman of the legislative committee of the Wisconsin Society of Equity, in an address before the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, described the agricultural co-operative movement in Wisconsin as a movement of the masses...
...of agricultural requirements is as good as a, dollar made in another way...
...In continuous grain-growing, organic matter and nitrogen are wasted...
...Oh, yes, let's ask Sir Horace Plunkett to tell us why the Co-operative Society is best for the busines of farming...
...Somewhere we have heard that co-operative societies had been formed to help farmers in the marketing of their crops and in various other ways...
...De Lawd am de best jedge ob how to go about his own bizness...
...Isolated orange growers throughout California never could have sold their fruit as it has been sold, nor advertised the merits of the 'Sunkist' orange if they had not combined in a large way and under the co-operative plan...
...Workers in the field of agricultural co-operation do not wish to cross swords with agricultural colleges...
...A legume like alfalfa produces more hay, too, than any of the grass crops and the alfalfa hay has a higher feeding value...
...3) A dollar saved In the purchase...
...A few farmers with a few cows cannot make a successful creamery, and one farmer with a few hogs can't ship to market...
...Yes, because farmers can manufacture— they take soil, labor and capital and produce corn and hogs and milk, and through their cooperative society they manufacture butter ¦— and if they are manufacturers they should have the manufacturer's privilege of buying their requirements used in the process at wholesale terms...
...This will increase his ••' purchasing power in his own community and bet-' ter his standard of living...
...But there must be co-ordination of effort and an intelligent appreciation of the problem as a whole...
...Peach growers this year are not so much interested in Bordeau mixture when they see piles of peaches rotting in their orchards...
...The grasses do not add nitrogen but the legumes do, which makes them more valuable than the grasses...
...they prefer to lock arms with them to further the interests of the farming classes...
...Some farmers formed joint stock companies and set up creameries of their own...
...Each has its field in which each can work best...
...Cause de Lawd nebber do anyt'ing extrabagant...
...There is also a rapid loss of the organic matter...
...He will use woven wire fencing, where before a three strand barb wire fence 'would do' and a leather cushioned rocker will displace the straight backed chair with the uncomfortable seat...
...Fust thing you know, Massa Roekefellah would buy up all de mud and put a stop to de popella-tion, and den where'd we be...
...they wish they could do likewise, but they have neither the capital nor the training, and besides someone has got to raise farm products that will sell only as food and not for purposes of breeding...
...and in Denmark, Holland, France, Italy and in every European country except Turkey they are combining under the co-operative movement...
...7 corn there would be an over-production of seed grains...
...So let's see if something can't be done to help average conditions...
...Uncle Moses" Explains "Uncle Aiosfcs, how u...
...Therefore, let farmers purchase these through co-operative agricultural requirement societies...
...5) Without organization farmers cannot buy at wholesale prices because trade is so organized as to prevent them doing It...
...Oh, yes, over in Germany there are 36,000 farmers' associations and they did over a billion dollars worth of business in 1914...
...Organic matter and nitrogen are two things very necessary to have in the soil in order to grow good crops...
...7) A greater purchasing power and a higher standard of living will aid directly legitimate merchants and enable farmers to buy more than formerly of the local store keeper...
...And didn't the American commission say something about Ireland...
...Agricultural colleges tend to develop a specializing group of highly traine* farmers who usually start with more capital than the average farmers...
...The joint stock creameries failed in Ireland because there was an inherent conflict between the owner of the shares and the owner of the cow...
...For the Land's Sake Grow Alfalfa ALFALFA leaves the land richer in organic matter and nitrogen than before it was grown...
...He said in part: "Average farming conditions must be improved at the same time that we are providing for those who can now avail themselves of the teachings of science...
...Den why don't he make 'em out of . the earf now...
...How to get their fruit to the consuming public is what they want...
...awd j make de berry first man...
...After all the welfare of the masses is what constitutes the welfare of the state...
...They say these examples of individual effort are premised oh the foregone conclusion that only a few can do them—and are 'ginger-bread edifices on prominent eminences for the edification' of a public as yet unenlightened as to the hardships and meager earnings of the average farmer in the United States...
...8) A higher standard of living and prosperity will make for a better citizenship and a more permanent and a greater nation, and (9) when the farmer has learned to conduct the business of farming successfully through his co-operative society and organization he is then more ready and willing to accept the teachings of science, and to appreciate the value of the agricultural college and short course...
...Why, he done make him out of de earf...
...Sir Horace Plunkett immediately answers: 'The one man, one vote principle is essential to success in agricultural co-operation...
...They consider it clever but not conclusive...
...When a grass crop or a legume crop is grown, organic matter is added to the soil...
...Not all of our half million farmers can receive technical training and some of them will have to be satisfied to sell their produce on the open market If they didn't and all raised pedigreed barley and No...
...4) But are farmers justified in doing this...
...Broflght into the cooperative movement because of his immediate need for a way to make or to save an additional dollar, he has been taught many things about business methods, and he is generally more ready and better equipped to apply what agricultural colleges can offer, and (10) to succeed in the business world—and this is one of the most forceful of all arguments—agricultural activities must be conducted on a large scale to be successful...
...North Dakota Experiment Station...
Vol. 8 • November 1916 • No. 11
