COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURE


 Production Control

 Florida is confronted with an increasing production of
citrus, truck, poultry, dairy products, livestock and general
farm products. In its program of cooperative agriculture,
the State has a paramount problem to keep m mind. Its
major crops are largely perishable, and most of them must
be disposed of almost immediately. While advances have
been made toward better marketing conditions by sound
organization and intelligent direction, it is increasingly
imperative that planned production be made a feature of the
cooperative program. Staples such as corn, wheat, tobacco,
cotton, etc., lend themselves to "carry overs," but the
proportion of these crops grown in Florida is relatively
minor.
 In many countries where control of production is
undertaken it is imposed from above. Here. in the United
States. production is being adjusted by democratic proce
dure, and, in the program of production control, cooperative
action is the leading factor. That the farmer himself is
offered the opportunity to reorganize his part m the
adjustment of production, is a part related to the whole,
and that recognition is of vital importance to success
 "One of the tragedies of agricultural life in our
country," says Mr Nathan Mayo, Florida Commissioner of
Agriculture, is that too often the very agency that has
functioned profitably with a crop of normal size, goes down
in defeat because, not having production control, acreage is
increased to such an extent that crops have to be sold at
low prices. There we have the sad spectacle of farm
organizations defeating their own ends and thwarting the
very purpose for which they were founded We must con-
sider the fact that one invariable result of successful
collective selling by farmers has always been a marked
increase in production. Cooperatives that direct the mar-
keting of 75,4 or more of any crop, can, and always have,