Hammond Times, Volume 8, Number 48, Hammond, Lake County, 17 January 1920 — Page 9

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By WALTER NOBLE BURNS. O TTAWA, Canada. Co-operative farming in the United Mates is still in the experimental phase, although it has secured a firm foothold in the Dakotas. Farmers in other states are awaking to its possibilities as a solution of all their problems and it is slowly spreading abroad like a new gospel crer the American nation. Co-operative farming in Canada has revolutionized the farming industry. It has brought Canadian farmers unprecedented prosperity that is shared in by the landed proprietor and small farmer alike. It has increased the farmer's profits. It has freed him from dependence on outside financial interests and enabled him to market his own products. It has set him in his true place in the economic scheme of the nation. It has made every small farmer in Canada an active participant in a gigantic business whose markets are the wide vorld. Throughout their fight for independence, the Canadian farmers have had the unfailing support of the Canadian government. Canada's prosperity rests upon its farms and the government has not only helped the farmers to help themselves but has done everything possible by legislation and direct financial aid to improve farming conditions. ThotJgh 45 per cent of Canada's population is centered in towns and cities, Canada is a country f farmers, and its government, it may be said, is government of the farmer, for the farmer and by the farmer. Students of the farming situation agree that what co-operative farming has done for Canada it will do for the United States under proper leadership. The Canadian co-operative movement has been fortunate in its leadership from the beginning. It originated in a spirit of revolt against intolerable conditions which were robbing the farmer of the rewards of his industry and inspired men of the hiur arose to direct its destinies through trials to victory. The prophets who have led it through the dsrk of early struggle to the promised land number uch men as T. A. Crerar, Canadian Minister of Agriculture; George Langley, Minister of Public Works of Saskatchewan; Dr. J. G. Rutherford, former Dominion live stock commissioner and now western representative on the Dominion Railways Board ; H. W. Wood, who came from Missouri a dozen years ago and is now president of the Canadian Council of Agriculture; and Cecil Rice-Jones, president and general manager of the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Company, upon whose $houlders fell the executive cloak as vicepresident and general manager of the United Grain Growers, when Mr. Crerar entered the government. The co-operative movement began in Canada eighteen years ago when a small group of farmers affiliated to fight the elevator interests. The Manitoba Grain Growers, organized in 1902, went into business four years later in opposition to the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. The United Grain Growers, an amalgamation of the Manitoba and Alberta farmer interests, and such subsidiary organizations as the United Grain Growers Securities, Limited, maintained for the appraisal and sale of farm lands, and a score of kindred societies, today number 60,000 farmer shareholders. They operate 606 conntrj elevators and fonr great terminal elevators

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at 1 ort William and Port Arthur. They handle one-third of all the grain grown in western Canada. The small pioneer group of farmers dealt only in grain. The farmers' organizations today market all the produce of the farm and deal in eery commodity which is aa rssential of farm economy. The Grain Growers appraise farm land values and locate and look after new settlers. They conduct a grain export business with headquarters in New York. They have taken up the distribution of farm machinery, lumber, flour, p.nd coal. The volume of this side-line business is '7,000.000 annually. They handle 3,000 cars of live stock a year. They do an immense business in flour and feed stuffs. They have a vast timber limit in British Columbia. To carry on this great business, the farmer companies maintain 1,300 employes. Their paidup capital is $'3,000,000 with a reserve fund of $2,000,000. The assets of the company are $'12,000,000 and they paid during the war $1, 000,000 in war taxes. These figures tell an epic story, the awakening of the farmer to his true economic value, his long fight for recognition as a business man and his final victory. Co-operative farming seems destined to play an even greater part in the future development of Canadian farming resources than it has in the past. Everyone in Canada expects the proposed Canadian land legislation, under which farms are to be sold to settlers on twenty-year terms, to people Canada's vast uncultivated tracts with immigrants. These new settlers will share in the prosperity achieved by co-operative methods, and their success will aid in attracting new waves of immigration which are to build a population that will give Canada its rightful rank among the Cations. The Canadian government has recognized the advantages of co-operation to the farmers and has promoted it in many other lines of farming activity besides grain marketing. Through the help of the government, the wool industry has been placed on a co-operative basis. The sheep men hid much the same conditions to contend with as the grain men had. The government now furnishes experts to grade the wool as it comes from the farmers' shearing pens and 'markets it to the best advantage without expense to the flock masters. Poultry men have caught the spirit of co-operation and likewise have won prosperity through government aid. All over Canada fowls are being graded and marketed co-operatively and egg circles for the co-operative marketing of eggs have sprung up everywhere. The Saskatchewan government has established killing plants at Regina and Saskatoon where fowls are killed, graded and marketed for the farmers.

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The dairymen also have organized. Canadian cattle are of high standard and there are many pure-bred dairy herds. The Dominion should be one of the greatest dairying countries in the world, but the industry languished because of inadequate marketing facilities. The government is remedying this. It has built co-operative creameries throughout the country which turn the milk of the farmers into butter and cheese and ship the products to market. The result has been a remarkable increase in profits and in the development of the dairy business. The government system is to operate the creameries for a certain number of years until they have been put on a flourishing basis and then turn them over to the farmers. The government's watchful care over its farmers is demonstrated in many other ways. The government is taking active steps to improve the , livestock of the country. It has made a number of importations of fine cattle, sheep and hogs which have been distributed among farmers to better foundation herds. It has spread abroad a doctrine emphasizing the value of mixed farming and has preached to small farmers the importance of raising livestock as well as grains instead of risking their year's profits on a single crop of wheat. In some of the farming regions, the government operates tractor plows which do the plowing for the farmers and reduce the cost of cultivating the land and increase the acreage under cultivation. It semis hundreds of agricultural experts on periodical rounds to superintend farming operations and teach the farmers the lat-,t scientific methods of crop rotation and soil reinforcement. In every way the governt', iU.s, both provincial and federal, are instil!;M- the advantages of co-operation and helping along the spread of the co-operative spirit. Willi government direction and financial aid, the farmers everywhere arc being drawn more closely together until it seems probable that sometime in the future all rural Canada may become on?