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Show THE W GAIN OF BULL ASSOCIATIONS Increase Attributed to Fact That Farmers Are Beginning to Realize Value of Quality. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) A t-nin of 35 co-operutlve bull assu-ciatimis assu-ciatimis during the past fiscal year indicates in-dicates that dairy farmers are benm-ning benm-ning to appreciate the value of such organizations. According to the dairy division of the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture there were ITiS of such associations, as compared with 123 a year ago. This Is an increase of 28 per cent, a very satisfactory gain in view of the comparative newness of the plan. This increase Is attributed by the department to the fact that farmers are beginning to become acquaintefl with the benefits which other farmers have derived from this form of cooperative co-operative breeding. Both federal and state workers have found that mem- Use of Purebred Sires as Improvers of Productive Capacity of Cows Is Rapidly Gaining Favor. bers are being benefited by such cooperative co-operative associations even more than the organizers had anticipated. Some form of co-operative breeding is essential to the proper growth of the dairy industry in many sections of the country, for the reason that the average herd at present is so small that the owner cannot afford to buy a good purebred bull, and it is certain lhat the herds of the future will not i if large enough to change this condition condi-tion materially. The movement to get more people living on farms and in vil-tages vil-tages to keep family cows tends to diminish the average size of the herd, for the one or two cows kept by each famiJy are really a herd in themselves, but owners of small herds cannot afford af-ford to keep a bull. They, therefore, depend upon neighboring bulls, and the co-operative association is one means of providing for such cows the service of high-class bulls. The dairy extension men In South Carolina, for example, realizing the importance of the co-operative bull association, have made it a, part ot their campaign for "two cows to each rural family," and they have set as a goal the organization in their state of 114 co-operative bull associations. |