SETTLEMENT AND COLONIZATION IN GREAT LAKES STATES 51 
Several of the companies sell one milk cow, or two if the farm is 
large, with the land. This is always optional with the settler, and 
many settlers buy their own cows or bring cows with them. One 
advantage of having the company furnish the cow is that it can 
probably buy to better advantage and select better cows than will 
the type of settler attracted by such settlement plans. Generally 
speaking, the settlers in a new country do not have good cows. On 
the other hand, they ordinarily can not afford to have first-quality 
cows at the start, for frequently they are not good dairymen, and 
usually do not have first-quality feed for the cows. Another advan- 
tage in having the company furnish the cow is that the settler in 
many cases has not the means with which to buy, and the cattle- 
buying program is a method of supplying the settler with credit. 
In some cases the provisions with respect to furnishing the settler 
with cattle are included in the contract; in other cases, inserted in 
the contract later at the time the cattle are provided; in still other 
cases, the arrangement is based on a chattel mortgage or by a 
promissory note, in each case generally separate from the contract. 
When covered by a chattel mortgage, the cattle must be paid for 
within a short period, two years in Wisconsin, or some new form of 
security provided to cover them. If cattle must be paid for in two 
years, this constitutes a departure from the three to ten-year exemp- 
tion from payments that is the basic idea of most of the new coloni- 
zation policies. 
Difficulties in buying cattle for settlers are: (1) Many of the 
cattle are sure to prove unsatisfactory and the settler will complain 
about them, if he knows what to expect from a reasonably good 
cow. (2) There will be faults in the animal which will appear 
only at time of freshening. (3) The settler’s feed is not likely to 
be of the best in the first two or three years, and even good cattle 
will not do well on poor feed. The ordinary feed of cattle in the 
cut-over country during the winter is hay and a very little grain. 
Much of the hay is wild hay and marsh grass. At the price of con- 
centrates in the settlement areas, a settler can not afford to buy much 
concentrated feed. Prices of high-grade cows are established by 
what experienced and efficient farmers can make them earn by giv- 
ing them high-quality feeds. A poor dairyman feeding poor feeds 
will run behind if he attempts to buy high-grade cattle at prices 
established in this way. (4) Settlers sometimes neglect their cattle, 
occasionally even losing them in the woods. (5) If any of the 
cattle do not turn out well, the company has to square itself with 
the settler by replacing them. The losses from this source have to 
be distributed over the other cattle in the form of an addition to 
their price. Because one company did» not make sufficient allow- 
ance for this, it lost several thousand dollars from this cause in one 
year’s operations. 
On two settlement projects cattle were furnished the settlers by 
separate cattle loan organizations, hence were not included in the 
settlers’ contracts. The colonization companies owned a large share 
of the stock of these organizations. Local banks furnished the nec- 
essary capital. The managers and directors of the cattle loan or- 
ganizations supervised the loans and in most cases guaranteed them. 
Undoubtedly this arrangement is desirable, particularly because it 
reduces the number of things which the land company seems to be 
