14 



INFORMATION RELATING TO CO-OPERAIION AND ASSOCIATION 



. The first Co-operative Bull Association in the United States of which 

 record exists was organized in igo8 by the Michigan Agricultural College. On 

 I July 1916 thirty-two of these associations were active in the country, and 

 the^'^ had a total membership of 650 and owned about 120 purely bred bulls. 

 The following table shows their growth. 



Michigan 



Minnesota . . 



North Dakota 



Maryland 



Vermont 



Wisconsin 



Connecticut 



Maine* 



Oregon 



Oklahoma . . 



Iowa 



South Carolina 



Massachusettes . 



North Carolina 



Illinois 



Total 



15 



13 



32 



(i) The 22 associations existing in 191 5 had 540 members and owned 3,600 cows and 

 90 bulls. 



Co-operative Bull Associations are especially useful to small herds 

 which cannot afford singly to lay out on a valuable bull the percentage of 

 their capital t\'hich his price would represent. The typical association of 

 the United States is composed of from fifteen to thirty farmers who jointly 

 own five " breeding blocks " and assign one bull "to each block. As many 

 as fifty or sixty cows may belong to the farmers in the block and the bull 

 thereof should be kept on a conveniently situated farm. The blocks are 

 numbered, and to prevent inbreeding each bull is moved from one to the 

 next block every two years. If all the bulls live and all are kept until each 

 has made a complete circuit, no new bulls need be bought for ten years. 

 Thus each member, by paying only a small part of the purchase-price of 

 one bull, has the use of good purely bred bulls for many years. Ordinarily 

 the purchase-price and the expense of supporting the bulls are distributed 



