Show COOPERATIVE FAR1IIXG How Tlloy Conduct Thing at the Two Iloclc Grange lit California Mr P S Chopin tells the American Agriculturist of a new departure in cooperative co-operative farming In one of his trips among the farmers of California he visited vis-ited a section of low hills between the Sonoma Valley and the coast This ia about fifty miles northwest of San Frau cisco A late rain and warm days had made the hills green giving a grass flavor to the butter and set all the hens cackling 1etaluma is a town of about 4000 people peo-ple and Its annual cash receipts for butter eggs and fruit exceed 2000000 Of tins about onethird is from eggs and gross returns can be fairly estimated at 52 per hen annually They report that one mans time is needed to care for top > hens properly Some of them have several thousand divided into colonies of fifty to one hundred birds Each colony col-ony has Its own house which is generally gener-ally built on runners so as to be easily moved by a team from place to place Tho standard size is seven by nine with threefoot posts Roosts run lengthwise and are suspended by wires so as to avoid danger from lice crawling from tile feldo of the building They move these about the pastures and taKe care to build tIle framework outside so hat they can readily paint the inside often with crude petroleum and carbolic acid as a preventive of disease The main object in small colonies and in moving the houses Is to prevent contagious diseases spreading They study carefully to feed a ration balanced for egg production Most of them have mills for cutting fresh bone and waste meat from the butcher shops Scraps from slaughterhouses slaughter-houses shells from the seaside cayenne pepper bran middlings and wheat are handled In very large quantities The Two Rock grange is located eight miles In the country occupies its own hall and is a model of cooperative enterprise en-terprise Every sixty days they order their regular supply of goods in original packages from their wholesale houses In the city and report savings ranging from 20 to S3 per cent Now the grange is establishing a cooperative j co-operative plant for handling butter and eggs They will put in modern creamery i fixtures with store room for the egg i business Within three miles of the point selected they can secure the milk i of 1000 cows and it Is likely that there are about 20000 chickens in the same territory Every morning when the milk wagon starts for the creamery It will take yesterdays eggs along AU the large white eggs will be put in cases by themselves conspicuously marked with the companys fancy brand After dinner din-ner the wagon will take the butter and eggs down to Festaluma to be shipped on the boat so as to reach San Francisco in time for next mornings market As the dealer can warrant that every one of the eggs was laid the day before yesterday yester-day they will command an extra fancy price When tile wagon returns it will bring mail for all parties fresh meat from the butcher small orders from town and bones and scrap from the slaughterhouse Next morning when the churn starts these scraps and bones will bfe run through the bone mill and a vat of the flrst skimmed milk that comes from the separator will be run Into curds so that the milk wagons can take home feed for the little chicks as well as the older birds Instead of carrying home milk for pigs and calves they will wash and scald the cans at the creamery and bring the pigs avM calves there to be raised The skim milk calf of the olden time used to get a late breakfast of sweet milk and an early supper of morn ingd milk that bad now turned sour He grew up Glao < Ided and spindle shanked looking like jv pumpkin seed on four pins Here they will have a speclal 1st to raise Ute young stock who will give the little ones at least three feeds a day of Tvarm sweet milk and the larger ones a little grain to brace them up The grange building and furniture have cost these people about S1103 and the expenses are 3 per year for each member mem-ber It has introduced cooperative ideas which can be fairly said to have already saved thorn 25 per cent yearly on their outlay and likely In the near future to add at least 25 per cent to their income This has resulted in no harm to any save as a part of the trade has been taken from their town When they have succeeded in thus reducing their expenses ex-penses 25 per cent and increasing their proceeds on their 1000 cows and 20000 hens from 80000 to 100000 and increas ing the value of their properly In proportion pro-portion to the Increased net proceeds how much of this gain will it be fair to credit to the little house on the hill where they hold their grange meetings |