COOPERATIVE AGRICULTURE


 ORGANIZING FARMERS FOR BUSINESS

By T J BROOKS, Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture

 The farmer is a manufacturer. The soil, atmosphere,
sunshine and showers are the material to which he applies
his skill, and from nature's laboratory is poured annually
into the channels of trade the materials from which is fed
and clothed the teeming millions of the earth.

 The farmer is a business man The selling of his surplus
is the great paramount source of the world's commerce and
trade He furnishes 600.000.000 tons of food annually to teed
the nations of the earth.

 The farmer is a consumer of the materials turned out
by the great urban industries. He interchanges his pro-
ducts with those of other lands till all the nations of earth
are linked together into one stupendous whole.

 History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries
the interpretations of man Opinions alter, manners change,
creeds rise and fall. but the law of cause and effect is
written on the tablets of eternity.

 To trace the law of cause and effect in the past for
future guidance is a task of civilization Present conditions
are the composite reflection of the operation of this law
Present tendencies are prophetic, and to properly interpret
is to be forearmed and empowered to direct the course of
history.

 The farmer of today is going through a period of transi-
tion, economically, industrially and financially. How to
adjust his methods, habits, and business to the changing
order is one of the difficult problems of the day which he
alone can solve.

 The consumer furnishes the demand for production He
pays for:
 (1) Cost of production.