12 
FARMERS' BULLETIN 993. 
may be equally great. No other argument should be necessary in 
urging that every association be particular in selecting bulls. 
All pure-bred bulls are not equally valuable. The daughters of 
some are inferior to their dams, while the daughters of others greatly 
excel their dams. The only way one may know the real value of the 
bull is to compare the production records of his daughters with those 
of their dams. It takes at least three } T ears from the time the bull 
is put into service to obtain some of this information, and very 
often the farmer has disposed of the bull a year or more before the 
end of that time. When he finds that the bull has improved the 
herd, his search for the bull may end in the stockyard or with the 
butcher. It is seldom that such a bull is found again. If he still 
lives and is being used, it may be at a considerable distance from 
Fig. 6.—A good beginning by a bull-association member. 
the original owner. Since the two do not meet, the second user has 
no means of knowing the worth of the bull. Thus many valuable 
bulls have been lost and inferior ones used instead. In the bull 
association this can not happen, for all the bulls are kept in the 
association until thoroughly tried. The poor ones are then sent to 
the block and the good ones kept and judiciously used to their full 
capacity to the end of their usefulness, which may be 12 or 15 years. 
This advantage alone is enough to repay all the trouble and ex¬ 
pense of forming an association. 
EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF BULL ASSOCIATIONS. 
The educational value of a cooperative bull association doubtless 
exceeds the direct net cash returns. The isolation from neighbors is 
at once changed to a contact that informs and enlightens, and, as a 
