New lives for old

The Pioneer Products Company was capitalized for three thousand dollars. Shares were sold for a dollar each, but each member was required to purchase five shares and not allowed to purchase more than twenty. Our object as set forth in the constitution was “the buying, selling, and handling of produce; the selling and consigning of produce as agent of the producer; the inspection of all produce so consigned; and the owning and operating of whatsoever shall be deemed to the advantage of the producer.”

The active management was to be in the hands of the general manager, who was to receive a small salary, and the secretary-treasurer. One of the most important provisions reads as follows: “All stockholders in the company shall be compelled to ship through the company.”

This was inserted as a protection against the bribing of members by city commission men whose object might be to break up the organization by offering, for a time, higher prices.

Our plan for distribution of profits provided that after all expenses were paid a dividend not exceeding ten per cent. might be voted; that after this a sum amounting to a tax of not over one dollar a share should be reserved from the surplus as a reserve fund, and the remainder distributed among members in proportion to the amount of business done.

A board of five directors elected by members was to have general supervision of the business with power to adjust all grievances.

There you have it in a nutshell. Our organization was unique in that it was founded on a social club already well established. We elected for the company the same board which had so successfully governed the club. I was elected secretary-treasurer and accepted the duty because I knew I was in a better position to undertake the work than anyone else. We elected Holt as manager and he accepted the position in a like spirit, although he knew it would demand a great deal of time from him. We couldn’t have had a better man. He jumped into the office like one whose fortune depended upon the outcome. He began to make a thorough study of market conditions, and got into touch at once with two or three big commission men. He haunted the markets and asked as many questions as though he were a member of a congressional investigating committee. He studied the transportation problem, and as a result soon sprang a brand new idea on us which went a long way towards making that first season successful. He had nosed around the city and found a second-hand auto truck which could be bought at a bargain. Our town was on a state road which was kept in good condition and he figured that by using the truck, counting in depreciation, interest and running expenses, we could effect a freight reduction of over fifty per cent. by transporting our own produce. Furthermore, this would leave us independent of train schedules and free to ship early or late as might suit our convenience. He was so enthusiastic over the project that he offered to contribute towards its purchase the salary of six hundred dollars we had voted him. I mention this to show what a fine spirit this man Holt had. It’s the sort of spirit that would make a success of any reputable venture. I’m also glad to mention that the company for its part showed an equally fine spirit. The board recommended the purchase, and the stockholders to a man voted to accept the recommendation, but to a man voted not to accept Holt’s contribution. Now that’s the sort of feeling that lies at the basis of real coöperation. That’s the sort of feeling which the two previous winters had made possible. There wasn’t a man in the club who didn’t appreciate Holt’s efforts and want him to get a fair return for his work. That feeling was worth ten thousand dollars to the club.

The next thing we did was to make a canvass of the club to find out how many men were able and willing to add to their live stock. It was urged that every Pioneer Club member should keep at least a few hens and a pig, and there was none who was not ready to accept this suggestion.

“We oughtn’t to find a member of this club buying an egg or a fowl from this time on,” I said. “If by any chance a member does find it necessary he ought to buy of another member. It’s absurd for any live dweller in the country ever to spend his good money for such things. It’s more; it’s a disgrace.

“Moreover we shouldn’t find within another year any member of this club paying from twelve to fourteen cents a pound for salt pork, or sixteen cents a pound for lard, or twenty-five cents a pound for bacon, when it would almost pay every man in the club to keep pigs for the dressing alone. Our forefathers would no more have thought of getting along without a pig than they would a well. No more should we. The packers have made it easy for us to buy rather than raise. So does everyone else who wants our money. That’s the big temptation which has been our undoing—this biting to the bait of the easiest way. It’s nothing but a new form of taxation which we have been too indifferent to throw off, until now we have the habit and think we can’t. It’s a pretty safe guess that the easiest way is never the profitable way in anything. We’ve tried the other with poor results; now let’s try the new way—the pioneer way.”

The question of raising beef and lamb, however, was not quite so general a one, as it took more capital. However, we found some twenty men who were willing to undertake the experiment to an extent which made it seem worth while for the rest of the club to help finance the undertaking. It resulted in the purchase of a Dorset ram and a good Holstein bull. A member was found who was willing to care for the animals in return for the free use of them himself. In addition he was allowed to charge a nominal fee which should cover the interest of the money invested by the club.

This was in February, and a few weeks later with the stock fully subscribed we began our second campaign. As Holt made clear in a talk to the club this company was not in and of itself any royal road to fortune. It was no short cut to success.

“It means harder work than ever on our part,” he said. “The company will prosper or fail by our own efforts. Don’t forget that before we can sell anything we must have something to sell. It may be different in Wall Street, but that’s a cold fact in our business. We must have more produce and better produce. Understand, it must be better. Now that we have given ourselves a name, that name must be made to stand for something. Up to now we have been anonymous, but from this point on we can’t be. I want our name to be not only for our own protection, but for the protection of our customers. I want the Pioneer Products Company to stand for the best and freshest and cheapest vegetables to be purchased. That’s the boast I’m making; that’s the boast I’m going right on making and you must back me up in it. You must turn more soil this year than last and you must give more care to your stuff. You must work harder. Don’t forget that this isn’t any easy way. For twenty years you’ve fooled around with the easy way—raising as little as you could with as little work as possible. This is the hard way—raising all you can and putting into the effort every ounce in you. But it’s the only way, and if you’ll stand back of me we’ll make this the biggest year our village ever had. Are you back of me?”

“You bet we are,” came a chorus.

They proved it, too, by the preparations they made. We announced the same prize awards that we made last year. With the money which had been turned back and with the surplus we had made on our moving picture show we were able to do this without going to the local merchants. I’m confident, however, we could have raised from the latter twice as much as we needed if we had tried. For the first time in a generation they had found their credits decreasing to an amount that more than paid for their investment in the Pioneer Club. At the same time their business had increased. However, we didn’t want our prizes to be so large as to make them an end in themselves, and we didn’t wish to increase their number to a point that would destroy competition. Furthermore we didn’t have half the need of stimulation that we had last year. Our people were now stockholders in a company and had the company to work for. Furthermore they had the inspiration of last season’s success to urge them on. I tell you that just the decreased household expenses of last winter made them realize what it meant to keep their land busy.

I figured that at least thirty per cent. more land was turned this spring. If our town had looked busy last year it was a regular bee-hive this year. We were also better prepared to do our own work. Several horses had been bought during the winter and many men had invested in plows and harrows so that they were able not only to do their own work but that of their neighbors too. We called in some outside help, but not much, which was a big satisfaction.

There was little skepticism this season about the worth of the methods we had followed last. Everyone had had better crops than ever before, even if in some cases they hadn’t come up to all that had been hoped for. Also there had been a good deal of swapping of experiences during the winter with a result of much information in regard to seeds that was of value. I realized that in a general way we already were beginning to sift out the things for which our land was best adapted. It was the beginning of specialization. I hoped, however, that this wouldn’t be carried too far, because I believed and still believe that our success would lie more in the line of general farming than special farming. Above all things I believe that every community should first of all supply itself. That is a pioneer idea that spells safety. Every dollar saved is more than a dollar earned in most cases; it often amounts to two dollars earned.

I had had such success last year with my potatoes that I determined to put in another five acres, making ten in all. I expected Hadley to approve of this inasmuch as results had contradicted every prophecy he had made. However, he only shook his head.

“I say let well ’nuff be. Ye was just plumb lucky last year, but ef ye try again ye’ll lose all ye made.”

You can’t beat Hadley’s pessimism. If you fail he’ll tell you he knew you would; if you succeed he’ll advise you not to tempt fate again. So far as I know he was the only man in the village who was still stuck in his tracks. I tried once more to persuade him to till his own soil but he refused. He was living fairly comfortably on the wages I paid him and was content to let matters rest there. Even in the face of the profits he had seen me reap, he only replied, “Ain’t no use farmin’ round here. Farmin’s dead.”

I kept my vegetable garden much as I had it before, but I put in another acre of white beans. Beans and potatoes—it looked to me as though any farmer in New England ought to make a living from those two things alone. They are as staple as gold and the market for them is unlimited. That is especially true of beans, for they keep indefinitely.

I ought also to say that my apple trees this second spring showed the result of the care that had been given them. They looked so hardy and strong that it was almost impossible to believe that they had the burden of fifty years’ neglect back of them. They blossomed well and I expected a good deal from them.

In the meanwhile Holt was working harder than ever with a view to providing us with the best possible market. We talked over any number of schemes. We considered the advisability of hiring a market stall in the city market for our own produce, but that involved not only a good deal of expense but active competition with men who made retail selling their business. We couldn’t afford to hire more help and it looked unwise to attempt to undertake this without the aid of an experienced man.

Then we considered an attempt to work up a line of private customers and deliver our produce to them direct. This again involved an initial expense for teams and men that we couldn’t afford and also the services of someone who could give more time to the management of the project than Holt could spare.

In the end it seemed inevitable that we should use a commission man. But—here’s the point—we were now collectively in a position to come to fairer terms with a middle-man than we had been as individuals. If one man handled all our produce he could afford to pay us more. Our experience with Barnes had been fairly satisfactory but he was only a commission agent and it didn’t seem to Holt that he offered now as good terms as we ought to get. Undoubtedly we should have had to accept those if Holt hadn’t run across a young fellow by the name of Burlington. He was just the man we needed. He was a young fellow starting in the retail business for himself and needed our produce as much as we needed him. Holt made fast to him at once. After his first interview with Burlington, Holt came back to me enthusiastic.

“He’s the temporary solution of the selling end,” he exclaimed. “He has the market stall, he knows the game, and he has a clientele. That much he has already invested for us. Now what I propose to do is to take him into partnership.”

“Have you got as far as that with him?”

“Not yet,” answered Holt, “but that’s what it’s coming to. If we give him stuff enough he can afford to handle it on a basis of ten per cent. over his expenses, which will be another five per cent. That’s some better than the thirty per cent. that we’ve been paying.”

“It surely is,” I agreed, “but he hasn’t agreed to it yet.”

“Not yet,” answered Holt without showing any sign of being worried. “I’m going to bring him out here some Sunday and show him our plant.”

A week or so later Holt brought Burlington out. He was a clean-cut, wide-awake young fellow of thirty and I liked him at once. We had him up to dinner and after that took him to drive around the village. We showed him some five hundred acres of land under cultivation—under real cultivation. We showed him acres upon acres which had been harrowed and worked until they looked like front lawns ready for seed. We told him that the produce from every inch of that ground would pass through the Pioneer Company except what was used at home. It was just like one big farm.

He was amazed. Then he exclaimed, “Say, you fellows have hit it right if you can keep it up.”

“Just you watch us,” I said.

He laughed. “I don’t need to watch anyone but Holt here,” he answered. “And, believe me, I certainly have got to watch him if I’m going to make a cent out of the deal.”

“Don’t get that idea,” Holt broke in, taking him seriously. “We want you to make a fair profit and we’ll see that you do. We want you to feel like one of us—a sort of partner.”

“Hadn’t thought of it that way,” answered Burlington, “but I believe that’s the right way to look at it. And say, I wouldn’t mind living out here myself. Anything in farms to be had around here at a reasonable figure?”

“Is now,” I answered, “but there won’t be five years from now.”

I didn’t know whether he was in earnest or not, but less than two months later he bought the Smalley place—a good house and ten acres of land at the lower end of High Street. That was a good move for him and a good move for us. It gave us confidence in him and made him really one of us. He joined the Pioneer Club at once and I sold him five shares of stock out of my twenty in the Pioneer Products Company so that he could join us, though I hated to part with it. There were some who were suspicious of his motives, but I wasn’t, and it wasn’t long before he proved himself one of the live wires of the company. His knowledge of the market was invaluable to us, and later on was an important factor in guiding us concerning what to plant.