Cooperative Farming in Europe

1904

British experts who have been trying to discover what is the matter with the English farmer assign as one of the causes of his having fallen behind his brethren in other European countries, that he has not followed their example of cooperation with his neighbors.

In Denmark, France, Holland, Germany and Belgium, within twenty-five years, the farmers have adopted modern methods of doing business, and by so doing have raised agriculture from a low estate and made it profitable. In France, for instance, in 1880, a professor of agriculture, convinced that if the farmers could be persuaded to buy artificial fertilizers their lands would be made much more productive, succeeded in inducing a group of farmers to club together and send a large order to the manufacturers. The wholesale price and a low freight rate brought the fertilizer within their means. From this small beginning "agricultural syndicates" have grown until they contain nearly six hundred thousand farmers, who purchase every year fertilizers, seeds and machinery worth twenty million dollars.

Combinations for selling their produce have not yet succeeded in France, but in Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Germany the farmers have united to raise produce of uniform quality and for securing favorable markets for what they raise. The market-gardeners in Holland have cooperative societies which inspect the goods, reject those not up to the standard, and label with a registered trade-mark those that are passed. In this way they have established a reputation for their product. — Youth's Companion.