FARMERS' CLUBS OF GREY COUNTY.

HUGH DUFF, DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE COUNTY OF GREY,

MARKDALE.

When Mr. Hart was speaking I was reminded of a meeting I attended last week of one of our new clubs. They had not had a meeting for quite a long time, and they had considerable business on hand, and kept discussing business until I began to worry. It was so late when I got to my hotel that I had to play the part of a common burglar and get in at the window.

Farmers' Clubs are getting interesting, and the movement will grow very rapidly. When I went to the County of Grey, a year ago last June, I found that there were seven active clubs in existence, thanks to the efforts of Mr. J. I. Graham, one of the secretaries of our Institutes. He certainly did a good deal for the clubs in Grey County. Four more clubs have been added to that number, so that we now have eleven very strong clubs.

My work at first was to try to find some way of getting the clubs to work together, some way of strengthening the organization so that there would be no danger of the movement not going ahead. It was an easy matter to start some movement because we had Mr. Hart's example to go by. We followed in his footsteps, and called a convention last January at which ten clubs sent two delegates each, and these delegates gave a report of what their clubs had accomplished, and told of their difficulties, successes, etc. We then had the election of officers, and the appointment of the executive, and a discussion on what could be accomplished by a County Board of Agriculture. We found that it was necessary to adopt a constitution, and again we had the benefit of Mr. Hart's lead. Then we discussed what we would do during the year. We have been able to accomplish a little, but not very much, owing to the fact that the organization had no funds. Next year we expect to have a little money to spend, because every club is giving the central organizations ten cents per member, and we have between 500 and 600 members. One of the things that the Board of Agriculture has accomplished that has been a great benefit to the county has been in connection with the labor problem. We got the names of the members of the club who required help, and sent word to the Immigration Department and secured quite a number of men. We were able to place a number who came over in parties and who had to be sent out to the country in a hurry. We simply got a telephone message from Toronto saying that there were so many to send out-six on one occasion-and asking us if we could place them. I happened to be secretary of the Board of Agriculture, and I had a list of the men who wanted help, and it was simply a question of telephoning to the secretaries of the clubs asking if these people could be placed and then letting the people in Toronto know that we could handle the men. I was in the Front Street office to-day, and met Mr. Clark there for the first time. He said, "You must have a pretty good way of placing men in that district, because you get rid of them in a hurry." It was all through this County Board of Agriculture giving us a means of keeping in touch with 500 or 600 men in the county.

Mr. Putnam sent us a little book on Farmers' Clubs and we considered it wise to follow the suggestions made therein. We made slight changes in the constitution to suit our district, and we now have a constitution that we think is suitable. One of the most satisfactory arrangements made by the board is that the responsibility of the work of certain clubs is placed upon the members of the executive. There are 2 F.I. (1)

six members, including myself. Each member has several clubs to look after. They are responsible for the starting of these clubs in the fall if they have not been conducting meetings during the summer. These men are also made responsible for the starting of new clubs throughout the county. We do not make a practice of going out and urging men to form clubs; we believe in allowing the farmers to take time to consider the matter and talk it over and then let them ask for a club. These men who are on the executive will talk it up with a few individuals in the section, and the first thing we know they are asking for a club in that district. This fall there has been quite a demand for clubs, very largely because of the meeting we had last January. There are two things that we failed to accomplish and that we are very anxious to see carried out. We have the largest county in the Province. We have a wonderful general farming district and we want to encourage the breeding of stock. We want to get some money to encourage the amateur stock breeders at the Guelph show. We have part of the best fruit district in the world. Grey County is in the Georgian Bay district, and there is no district that will produce apples that will keep so well, or apples with such a good flavor as the apples from the County of Grey. We can produce a Northern Spy that will beat anything in the world. We wanted to show some of these apples this year, but we were not able to get the money to do so.

The outstanding feature of the club work so far undoubtedly has been the new life that it has put into the community. The membership of the clubs runs from 30 to 125. I want to speak of that club that has 125 members, because it is an unusual one. While it is one of the strongest, I would not say that it is doing the best work. It is located in a township that has been known as the worst, it is rough and hilly and somewhat stoney, and the members of the club are largely young people. The young man who was instrumental in having it organized, and who is the president, knew that the young people were fond of fun, and so at the first meeting he announced the programme for the next, and said that there would be dancing at the conclusion of the programme. They had a rousing address on a good agricultural subject, and then a sociable time. The club is catering to the demands of the people, and at the same time it is giving them something that is good. I do not know of any club where they have better discussions on agricultural subjects than that one. That is the only district, so far, where I have found variegated alfalfa. They know all about the common alfalfa and they are making good progress.

We are just beginning a work that I desire to mention; we are making a special effort to revise the prize list at the fairs throughout the county. We are interested in producing potatoes and other things that are going to bring greater profit to the farmer. In Grey County we grow just as many varieties of potatoes as they do in any other county and we are trying to get the fairs to give bigger prizes for such varieties as the Empire State, Davies Warrior, Rural New Yorker Number 2, and so on; and to pay bigger prizes for the variety of oats that is best suited to our locality and to carry that idea throughout the whole Prize List.

THE CHAIRMAN: A gentleman was in my office the other day and was discussing the whole question of Farmers' Clubs, and he propounded what he thought was somewhat of a puzzle. He said: "We have Farmers' Clubs in our district which have been going for some years, and, although the membership is steadily increasing, the attendance is steadily decreasing. How do you account for it?" I said. that I did not know how it could be accounted for, unless it was that they had cooperation in the neighborhood and in that particular club, and he confessed that

that was the explanation. I do not cite this as an argument in favor of a decreased attendance at the meetings, because I think after the able addresses of Mr. Hart and Mr. Duff you will all be convinced of the advantage of attending the meetings. The social and educational advantages are strong enough to weigh very mightily in the consideration of this question, and to prove a big factor in making your club a necessity in your community. At the same time, I would emphasize the desirability of carrying out some practical scheme of co-operation, and we now approach that part of our programme which will deal more specifically with this question of co-operation. Co-operation has been worked out in various ways, and it can certainly be worked out to success through the Farmers' Clubs.

We will first hear from Mr. Hare, who has made such a big success of cooperation by means of poultry circles in Ontario County.

ONTARIO COUNTY POULTRY CIRCLES.

J. H. HARE, DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE, WHITBY.

We must all acknowledge that the Farmers' Club is a splendid organization, yet I do not believe that any of us would take the stand that it is a perfect organization in its present state. If I were given authority to pass judgment on the modern Farmers' Club I would feel inclined to say that many of them are too much one-sided in the work which they undertake. A great many of them confine their energies to work of a social or educational nature. If our Farmers' Clubs had the supervision of some successful business enterprise, and if the members could derive some tangible money results, I am sure that the acquisition of membership would be an easy matter. Inactive members would become active and the social and educational side would be better received.

I do not think the Farmers' Club could take up a better line of work than poultry. This branch of agriculture is in need of encouragement. There is no branch that will yield better results. The majority of the farmers are not interested in poultry, and they are often accused of indifference. Just why the farmer should not be interested in his poultry is difficult to understand. It certainly cannot be caused by the returns that he gets. We have abundant evidence to establish the fact that considering capital and labor, the returns from poultry compare very favorably with other lines of live stock.

We must conclude, therefore, that the farmers disregard for poultry is caused by a wrong idea with regard to the industry. There is room for a lot of missionary work in regard to poultry on the farm. The farmer should be aroused and made to see that there is a distinct place on his farm for poultry, and that it is one of the best revenue-producing branches of his business. From the experience I have had in Ontario County, I do not think there is a better way of getting the farmers to realize the importance of the poultry business than by organizing Poultry Circles. The fundamental principle is that of co-operation. The fruit industry has been wonderfully improved by co-operation. I think greater things can be done for the poultry industry than have been done for fruit. The poultry industry is in a worse state of neglect than the fruit industry ever was. The eggs are bought by country merchants, hucksters, and egg dealers, who pay so much per dozen without the least regard to the question of size or quality. This is unfair

to the farmers who are supplying eggs of the finest quality. They suffer because of the low price that is paid for the average egg. The reduction in price is considerable. We know that there is a shrinkage in the egg trade of from 15 to 25 per cent. In the United States report it is said that there is loss of 17 per cent. by bad eggs. The Dominion authorities recently made an investigation, and they found that the produce merchants of Canada were of the opinion that that estimate was not too high, so you see this shrinkage must be accounted for in some way. The commission merchants know what shrinkage to count on at certain seasons of the year, and they pay a price sufficiently low to cover that shrinkage, therefore the farmer who is supplying the trade with good eggs has to suffer because of the low price he has to take. Such a system should be strongly condemned. The egg trade needs a selling principle based upon quality. That is the principle we have in the egg circle. The farmers are paid for their eggs according to their real value, and the organization sells the product at the highest price that can be obtained on the market. The organization establishes a reputation for the highest quality of eggs.

The indifference of the farmer makes it difficult to establish an egg circle; they seem to think that because their grandmothers traded eggs at the store for sugar and tea that they must do the same. In almost any community there are a sufficient number of progressive farmers who will readily see the advantage of cooperation and the necessity of establishing something like an egg circle. You will find enough men of this class to get the organization started. The egg circle must necessarily start with a few and time must be taken to prove to the others that their objections are without foundation. As soon as the circle is started it has enemies of all descriptions-hucksters, storekeepers start to squelch it but if the farmers remain loyal there is no trouble in keeping the circle in good working order. The first thing to do is to convert the farmers to the benefits of co-operation. When the right time arrives a meeting should be called, and have at the meeting a man who is strong on co-operation. At the organization meeting six or seven directors should be appointed, and after the meeting is over the directors should be called together and the election of officers should take place and a manager should be arranged for and employed. He should be paid on the commission basis. The secretary should arrange for the issuing of instruction sheets, egg stands and other equipment that would be required. Before a farmer is admitted to an egg circle he should agree to live up to its constitution and by-laws. It is our experience that if those in charge of the egg circle formulate a very arbitrary set of rules and stipulate that the violation of these rules will result in expulsion, that the results will be disastrous. Strict observance of the rules should be kept before the minds of the farmers, but it must be kept in mind that the farmer does not look upon his poultry as a business enterprise. The egg gatherer is usually the manager of the circle; he makes it a point to gather the eggs on a certain day of each week and prepare them for shipment. He reserves his commission, which is usually from one to three cents. The success of the circle depends a great deal on the integrity and honesty of the manager. Unless an association can get a good manager it had better give up the idea altogether. The egg circle movement has been in progress in our county for some two years. It started with one organization in the north part of the county, and we had a good deal of difficulty in getting it started; finally we got it going and at the present time we have seven organizations. The second one we started proved an entire failure. Our organizations vary in size from 37 to 195 members.

The shipment of these seven egg circles during the spring and summer months of this year have represented in money a business of $20,686. The advance in price due to this organization has varied from one to three cents in the summer time to from four to twelve cents, and as high as fifteen cents in the fall and winter months. The results from an educational standpoint have been satisfactory, and there has been a revival of interest in the poultry trade. Before leaving the office, I noticed we had applications for some fifty cockerels, and they were to be of the W. R. Graham strain, as one man put it. Good attendance at poultry meetings is now the rule. Inquiries for instruction as to methods of breeding and feeding are increasing in number, and in many instances plans are being made to construct new houses, and to enlarge the size of the flock, and to breed pure bred poultry, and to give their poultry that attention that they so well deserve.

TWO IMPORTANT POINTS.

THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Hare's fascinating story as to the success of the egg circle movement in Ontario County, to my mind, brings out in striking relief two great underlying fundamental principles in connection with our agricultural work. One is the supreme importance of producing quality in farm products; and, second, the great desirability for securing for the producer as large a share as possible of the price which is paid by the consumer. These two questions, I believe, underlie the great problem of agriculture at the present time, and we are indebted to Mr. Hare for presenting to us the story of a movement which has accomplished so much in one county, and a movement, which, if extended, can accomplish as much in other counties. In looking over some statistics the other day, I was very much struck to notice that during the last fiscal year, Canada imported over seven million dozen eggs. It may surprise you to know that Canada is not supporting itself in this line of farm produce.

We are fortunate in having with us to-night Professor W. R. Graham, of Guelph, one of the most eminent authorities on the subject of poultry on the continent. During the past summer Mr. Graham has had an opportunity of visiting Ireland and Denmark and studying, at first hand, the co-operative movement which has made both these countries famous all over the world. I trust he will tell us to-night something of their success, and mayhap something of the points in which they fail, for, perhaps at this distance, we are too likely to hear of their success and not be told that they have their failures as well as we.

CO-OPERATIVE POULTRY WORK.

PROFESSOR R. W. GRAHAM, O.A.C., GUELPH.

In looking at this question of co-operation I wish you would bear in mind at the commencement, that the essential point in marketing any kind of farm produce is uniformity. Let me illustrate that point. I visited a number of grocery stores in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London, and I found that they were nearly all in favor of Danish eggs, and they liked Danish butter and bacon. I asked several of them why they preferred Danish eggs and butter, and the reply was in almost every case that they could put out tub after tub of Danish butter and