FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 355 



for better prices in the near future, but it will help only the man who has 

 had the nerve to get his cattle on feed so as to have them ready during the 

 next eighty days, for I believe the West is full of cattle. 



I hope that many have done better than I have and shall be glad to hear 

 of their methods. I know of many who have failed to make money this 

 year, but what I want to know is how the fellow has managed who is ahead 

 of the deal. 



CO-OPERATION IN OWNING PURE-BRED BULLS 



John Thompson, Woodbury County, in Breeders'' Gazette. 



From attendance at live stock shows and fairs one is apt to get the 

 impression that pure-bred cattle are increasing very rapidly. No doubt they 

 are increasing at a rapid rate, but when one comes to study statistics one 

 finds a smaller percentage of pure-breds than he would expect. According 

 to the twelfth census we have in the United States in the neighborhood of 

 seven hundred thousands pure-bred cattle of all breeds among a total of 

 about sixty-eight million head. It has also been estimated that in the 

 neighborhood of 20 per cent of our cattle are grades, having one-half 

 or more of improved blood in their veins. This leaves a tremendous percent- 

 age of scrubs and grades with less than SO per cent improved blood. We 

 have in round numbers five million seven hundred and forty thousand farms 

 and hence only 1.2 head of pure-bred cattle to every ten farms. Many 

 farms, as is well known, have large herds of pure-bred cattle, and therefore 

 it is safe to estimate that when we except the herds of breeders of registered 

 cattle we will find only one registered head of cattle to each ten farms. 

 This suggests many prosperous years for the breeders of pure-bred cattle. 

 The large farmers and the cattle breeders of the ranges are in a position to 

 use registered bulls with which to grade up their herds and they are making 

 comparatively rapid progress in that direction. In other words, these con- 

 siderations indicate, and experience and observation corroborate the same, 

 that the pure-bred cattle of the country are not owned by the small farmers. 

 For this condition of affairs we find two main reasons. There is a small per 

 cent of farmers who do not appreciate the value of registered stock and who 

 do not understand how to grade up their herds; they are ignorant of the 

 laws of breeding and are laboring under the erroneous impression that a 

 grade bull is as valuable as a pure-bred animal for all practical purposes. 

 This is one reason why our cattle are not more rapidly graded up than they 

 are, and to that class of farmers this article will not appeal. 



There is, however, another class of farmers, and the writer believes that 

 they are in the majority, who argue that they can not afford to keep 

 registered bulls for the reason that they can use such bulls for only two or 

 three years and then are obliged to sell them for beef in order to avoid 

 inbreeding; this they have to do at a heavy sacrifice. That this argument 

 has a great deal of force can not be denied. It is a serious matter to have a 

 bull depreciate in value to the extent of $150 in the course of two and a half 

 or three years, especially so when a man only has from ten to fifteen cows. 



