The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., November 12, 1910, Image 1

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
P* HOW TO D/Ty!rCHK4^^^^^^4CE —
I \xx v ^ 'S** ~ .„« Atatea ot Mlsalasippl,
? A Farm and Horn.WwWytor«*a«».. and Tanna....
i K Alabama, Lou
^ W 1_—--7-Weekly: $1 a Year
-YV~Nn~4S~ caTiipnAYrwOVEiiiiBEW 12,191 • ^=====
Volume XV.No-_A.>,^_________ _1
^PRACTICAL NEIGHBORHOOD CO-OPERATION
CO-OPERATION" MEANS literally "a working together," and that
ia what It la. Two men co-operate when they work with each
other for a common end. Such working together Is coming more
and more to be • nerrealty, although the fact remains that fanners
hare learned ita advantages and profited by them to a less degree, per
hap«. than any other class. The reasons for this arc plain to the
man who studies the subject a little; but it is becoming plain, too, to
thinking men that It is time to change this policy—time for farmers
to begin working together, both as individuals and ns a class, to bring
about things that will be of benefit to all of them.
It if* a iwirt of our creed, however, tiiat before farmers can suc
cessfully co-operate as a class, or In great bodies, they must learn
f to co-oj*erate as Individuals, or Ita small groups. For this reason,
while believing In and urging co-operation of the fanning class as a
whole, we have stressed the primary need of local co-operation—of
the fanner’s learning to work with Ills immediate neighbors, so as
to help them and be helped by them. When a man has learned to
Join forces and to get along with the other farmers who live rigid
•round him. It will be easy for him to work well when he becomes
a member of a larger body of co-operators; while, on the other
liand, the man who can not work in harmony with his neighbors,
though lie may preach organisation and co-operation ever so loudly,
Is not likely to add much strength to any association or order to
which he may belong.
The ways in which this or neignoon.vww, -—
be carried on lo the practical and immediate benefit of all partici
pating are numerous. I** us mention Just a few:
Hlghi now the fall plowing season Is on hand. If Farmer A
lias one horse and Farmer I» one horse, and both wish to do better
plowing than they have been in the habit of doing, let them com
bine fortes; put the two l.orses In together and let A do some sure
enough plowing while It digs up the brlen, and bushes, cleans off
dltcl, banks, or something of the kind. Then next day, If wished,
change Jobs. Both will be better off. by having better work done
and by saving the labor of one man, and the spirit of neighborly
helpfulness and Interest will be worth much to each.
Then suppose A has three or four acres of stumpy land; B, four
or live seres; C. Just over the hill, a half-dozen acres, and all of
them feel the need of getting rid of these stumps so that they can
do better work at less cost. No one of the three may feel able to
buy a stump puller for his little patch of land; but If they all go
In together they can get the machine easily, Join teams and forces.
, . . i.ieiile out of what would be a bard job for any
and almost make a punu oui ui
one of them alone.
Thru. .brae .here ... .-•‘My »“ or
nrar-by, keep only » few hratl of <*ch ,,"u, **
In ..... Iinbtt ..f httullntf 1.1.. .. »,t*o»_,ierlmi« » one
bom. .rauerinrl It by .. •><*«» •>■«' “»• d»"“ ,h*‘ “
would pity them ... form « com,.,..) nnd boy.«»»"• .Itrender, nnd
■II of ttiem Ret tbelr immure out to belter -biqie, ‘.'it' 'ss *' r■
k Tlieii, tlmt little .till. Of ... .but run. down from
*. Brawn'll turn. Into Kmlth'it Brawn ron't drain bin port without buy.
Inn let .... 8ml.lt'- bind; .....I Sml.b ..I- Held frequently
flooded by the water coining down from Brown’s farm. Wouldn’t It
be the sensible thing for them to go in together and drain the whole
patch, and be done with it?
These are obvious ways of co-operating with one’s neighbors; but
there are others which most fanners seem never to think of, but
which are well worth while. t
For example, a man in a neighborhood has a good variety of
corn, one which he has bred up with care and which gives uni
formly good crops. It will pay this man to give his neighbors seed
of this com, so that he can more easily keep his own strain pure;
and it will pay his neighbors to plant this com, and to help keep
the strain pure and true to type. Then, if the originator of the corn
advertises his seed and creates a demand for it, every one of them
will profit by it, and the neighborhood will soon get a reputation for
the production of good seed corn, and every man will easily be able .
to get more for his crop than he otherwise would.
The same thing is true of poultry and live stock. If half a hun- 1
dred farmers iu one community kept Barred Plymouth Bocks, for ex- ■
ample, and the poultry buyers could count on getting a good bunch of (
fryers or roasters, all alike, in that community, or of finding the eggs j
from that neighborhood of uniform size and color, they would be ;
right there to take the output, and would be willing to pay a little
more than the regular market price for them. This, without consid
ering the possibilities in the sale of breeding stock, and the healthy
rivalry in the improvement of the different flocks that would surely
come.
There are neighborhoods that have established reputations as the
producers of a certain type of horses or cattle or hogs—some neigh
borhoods for market and some for breeding stock,—and in every
case this reputation has a cash value to every man living in that
neighborhood.
Learning to co-operate with one’s neighbors in these plain matters
of business at first, the spirit of mutual helpfulness will soon extend
to other things; and one will find himself joining in with his neigh
bors to buy staple goods in larger quantities and so at better prices,
to market his crops more advantageously, to make better roads and
better schools, to establish local reading rooms, to hold local farmers’
institutes, and so on and on, in a hundred different fields of activity.
Ami so, having learned how much one’s neighbors are really
worth when rightly used, the people of such a community may be
counted on when they are co-operating with farmers as a class, when
they are working for a State or National reform, when members of
any organization trying to bring all farmers into harmonious rela
tionship and so to uplift farming as a business and farmers as a ]
class, to be steady, willing workers who can be counted on at all
times to do their part.
T’llfC Wppk * Prof- Massey’s Comments; Getting Ready
for Next Year’s Crops; Practical Tile
Drainage; Late-Sown Oats; Health Hints for Cold Weather;
Pate Seed Laws Needed; Japanese Farming and Farmers;
Red Polled Cattle; Mississippi State Fair; Practical Poultry
Houses ; Rice Growing in Arkansas.