clothing.

The organizations of these farmers which have been formed in recent
years for self-protection have been blamed for some outrageous deeds.
Persons in sympathy with these organizations have burned the barns of
farmers unwilling to enter the combination. They have administered
whippings and threats right and left in the interest of the farmers'
organization. In their contest with the buyers to secure a better price
they have reduced to ashes some of the warehouses of the monopoly to
which they were obliged to sell their tobacco. These public outrages are
worthy of condemnation. The writer believes that they were not essential
to the process of co-operation by which the farmers fought their way to
better success, though the effect of these acts is a part of the
historical process.

But the combination of farmers has redeemed the poorer, the tenant
farmer and the small farmer from economic slavery. His representatives
now fix the price of the product. There is one buyer and one seller,
competition being eliminated; and the price at which the tobacco is sold
is the farmers' price, not the manufacturer's price. As a result the
farmers are able to hire help. The wife and children no longer work in
the field. The bills are paid as they are incurred, instead of credit
slavery binding the farmer from year to year. Last of all this
prosperity has taken form in better roads, better schools and better
churches. It remains only to be said that among the farmers engaging in
this co-operative union there were many preachers and pastors of the
region. They took a large part in the combinations of farmers which
affected this great gain. They recognized that the fight of the farmers
for self-respect and for free existence was a religious struggle and
that the church had a common interest in the well being of the
population to which it ministered.

Another instance of co-operation is seen in Delaware and on the "Eastern
Shore" where the soil had been exhausted. Methods of slavery days were
unfavorable to the land and after the War it was long neglected. In
recent years a new type of farmer has come into this territory. By
intensive cultivation with scientific methods, he is raising small
fruits, berries, vegetables and other products, for the nearby markets
in the great cities. The success of these farmers has been dependent
upon their produce exchanges. They have learned, contrary to the
traditional belief of farmers, that t