520 ANNUAL REl'ORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



When the owners of one hnndrecl and twenty common cowh decide 

 upon some particular breed from which to select males for improve- 

 ment, then an association may be formed. This particular form of 

 organization containing one hundred and twenty cows is divided into 

 three grou])s of forty cows each, with one bull for each group. There 

 may be from two or three to seven or eight men in each group, de- 

 pending upon the size of the herds, or there may be more groups in 

 the association depending upon the willingness of the people of the 

 community. 



Each member joining an association is required to sign the follow- 

 ing agreement, viz: 



"We, the undersigned, desiring to organize a bull association do 



hereby promise to pay equal sums of money on or before 



for which we agree to take equal shares of stock in the aforesaid as- 

 sociation when organized. This association is organized for the pur- 

 chase of three or more registered bulls, provided three 



groups of forty cows each can be secured. The understanding is that 

 these bulls are to be owned in common and changed from group to 

 group every two years, thus providing service for six years. In case 

 of the three-group association at the end of two years to avoid in-and- 

 in breeding, the bulls are changed from one group to another and the 

 same thing is done at tlie end of four years. In this way, barring ac- 

 cident, or loss of bulls by death, the association is provided with 

 registered males for a period of six years at an initial cost of from 

 flO.OO to 140.00 per member. The owner within each forty cow group 

 should be somewhat closely located, but this is not true of the groups, 

 which may be several or more miles apart, their only concern being 

 an occasional business meeting and the exchange of sires every two 

 years." 



This plan has been put in operation in over thirty places in Michi- 

 gan and is working successfully for the improvement of Michigan live- 

 stock. Under this plan there was this year between six and seven 

 thousand common and grade cows bred to pure bred sires. This plan 

 has many things to recommend it to the farmer who wishes to im- 

 prove his livestock: (1) The low initial cost. (2) The advantage 

 of always having a pure-bred sire available for service. (3) The use 

 of mature sires. (4) Associations will buy better sires than the 

 average individual. (5) When whole communities are interested in 

 one line of breeding it makes a market for their surplus cattle, be- 

 cause they are grown in sufficient quantities to attract buyers. 



In conclusion, gentlemen, the work done in Michigan has not been 

 done in the thickly populated places in the southern part of the state. 

 Most of the work has been in the sparsely settled sections, among the 

 stump lands just as the lumberman left them, where the settler is 

 making his home. Some of you perhaps know that in Michigan we 

 have several hundred thousand acres of good hard-wood land, and the 

 settlers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana are coming to 

 these places and making homes there, and it is among these. people 

 that that work or most of it is being done. 



MR. HARMAN: How would you go about it in a thickly settled 

 community where there are old established breeds and that prejudice 

 to be overcome? 



