106 Cooperation in Agriculture 



ganizations have rarely been formed on the cooperative 

 plan. 



The way to improve the horses of a community is first 

 to decide which breed and type of horse suits the locality 

 and the requirements of the farmers best, and then breed 

 only the best mares to a good, sound, pure-bred stallion. 

 The farmers of a community, representing the ownership 

 of seventy-five to eighty mares, can join together and 

 organize on the cooperative plan to purchase a stallion, 

 each member paying his share of the cost in proportion 

 to the number of mares to be bred by each. The associa- 

 tion then sends a representative to a stock farm abroad 

 or in the United States to select the stallion. The stal- 

 lion is taken care of by one of the members of the associa- 

 tion. Under this system, the farmers of a community 

 can secure a pure-bred stallion of the desired breed at 

 a lower cost than under any other method. 



The company system of horse-breeding. The pur- 

 chasing of stallions for community use has been adopted 

 to a very large extent in the Central West and in the ex- 

 treme western states, especially in California. The 

 method commonly followed is known as the "company 

 system." It consists of the organization of a group of 

 farmers by a dealer or company and the subsequent sale 

 of a stallion to the organization. The system is described 

 by Rommel, 1 who in contrasting it with the cooperative 

 system of ownership says : 



"The company system of selling stallions used by many 



1 Circular 124, Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Ag- 

 riculture, " Suggestions for Horse and Mule Raising in the South,'.' by 

 George M. Rommel. 



