Breeders' and Growers' Association 107 



importers and breeders is applied in the opposite manner. 

 A representative of a stallion owner visits a community 

 and himself proceeds to organize a company. He fre- 

 quently associates some prominent man with him, giving 

 him a share of stock for his influence. When sufficient 

 men come in to cover the selling price of the stallion at 

 the fixed price for shares, each member gives his note for 

 the amount represented by his share, the agent discounts 

 these notes, and the horse is sold. It is an unfortunate 

 thing that this company method of selling stallions is 

 used. Many horsemen condemn it strongly, even though 

 they may use it. Its existence is condoned on the plea 

 that if it were not used the horses would not be sold ; that 

 the horse must be taken to the buyer, because the buyer 

 will not go to the horse. That may have been true in 

 the Central West several years ago, and it may be true 

 in some parts of the South to-day, but in this day of tre- 

 mendous prices for horses of all kinds it seems strange 

 that a really good horse cannot be sold on its merits. 



"The decline of the company system of selling in the 

 corn belt is being followed by the adoption of the public 

 sale by some breeders, and the firms that use the company 

 system most extensively are carrying it into the South and 

 far West, where less experience has been had with it. 

 There is little doubt that the people of these sections, too, 

 will soon find out the faults of the system, and we can look 

 forward to the time when it shall have passed from us 

 forever. The objections to the system are its expensive- 

 ness and general unreliability. To send an agent into 

 the field for several weeks to sell one horse (and often the 

 horse is with him, and a groom also), to pay this agent's 



