FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 99 



per member of any we have record. They bought five high-class 

 pure-bred bulls. There were nine bulls before in that commun- 

 ity and the average price of those bulls was $8i. That was the 

 extent of the value of the bulls that w^ere there prior to the for- 

 mation of the organization ; the average power of investment 

 w^as $8 1. When they went together in this way $249 represent- 

 ed the value of the bulls in that community and* for this they pay 

 $75, which will last for ten years, and maybe more; that means 

 about $7.50 a year investment by the farmer for the use of a 

 $240 pure-bred bull, coming from herds that have records be- 

 hind them, representing probably 400 and 500 pound producers, 

 so here they replaced the $81 scrub bulls by $240 pure-bred bulls. 

 There is no question as to the practicability of this kind of 

 an association, it has been tried out enough so we are sure that 

 it is a good thing for the communit}^. It not only reduces the 

 cost, but it determines the breed and puts into a community 

 pure-bred bulls so that anyone belonging to the association is 

 assured of the use of a pure-bred bull for ten years. It guaran- 

 tees to the farmer for ten years the use of a pure-bred sire of the 

 breed selected at the time of the organization and he does not 

 have to put up any more money than this first investment during 

 those ten years. In the case mentioned above they had nine bulls 

 before they organized and it is reasonable to believe that the fivt* 

 bulls they now have will not meet w^ith any more accidents than 

 the nine did before, so that the original cost of the organization, 

 is a reasonable comparison to make. If a man w^ll buy a pure- 

 bred cow at the time of organizing, if he is any way reasonably 

 successful, he w^ould have a herd of 15 or 20 pure-bred cows 

 within ten years. 



Q : What do these associations do in the matter of con- 

 tagious abortion? 



A : That is one of the questions that comes up all the 

 time. I will tell you what the Association did with tuberculosis. 

 Out of these sixteen farmers, two or three of them had been 

 doing a little testing for tuberculosis, not very much; those who 

 had purebred stock had done some testing for tuberculosis be- 

 fore this organization was formed, but the rest of the sixteen 

 hadn't done anything at all along the line of testmg. When the 



