The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1915-04-16
COOPERATIVE LIVESTOC INDUSTRY
IN MISSISSIPPI.

Of the Agricultural and Mechanical College
during the past two years or more. An interest in
this type of farming had been growing some time,
but no systematic effort was made to push the
work until summer Of 1912. During this summer
the college took up the matter or organizing County
Live Stock Associations. For many years previous
to this time the college had been advocating more
and better livestock" to the farmers of the State,
and the interest had been gradually growing.
The organization of the county associations
a long felt need in the State. It was seen that
in the countries where organizations had been per-
fected, that the industry took on new life. The
first object of the association was to enable the
to utilize hitherto waste farm products and
and to have a money crop to supplement the
cotton heretofore grown almost exclusively. Another
object of these associations was to assist
in the work of tick eradication. As to how well
this succeeded may be shown by the statement that
almost every county winning a prize for progress in
the work had a live working county association.
The counties being practically freed Of the
tick. the associations took up the work of grading
up the type OF stock grown in the county by inn
porting pure bred sires. It was shown by expert
ments carried on at the college that the use of pure
bred beef type bulls on the native cows would pro-
duce market topping beef animals. This may be
shown by the fact that in the year 1913 the College
was offered $500 per head for a herd of 26 ten
month old calves out of native cows and beef type
sires. The calves had no feed other than pasture.
Another illustration of grading up a herd may be
shown by the results obtained by Mr.. Cary Cooke
of Columbus. In the winter of 1913-14 Mr.. Cooke,
fed a car of grade calves in cooperation with the
College. They were fed on silage and cotton seed
meal and brought an average price Of $4,000 per
head at one year old. AS more sires were brought
into the counties the demand for breeding stock
|rrow onl 4bic 1nl u Tho oc%ohl,eb;,~ of ,r-o h,,J
breeding farms in many places in the State. This
work is now taking on an Importance hardly
dreamed of only a short time ago. 1t has come to
be a common sight to see pastures dotted with
Angus, Herefords, and Shorthorns.
The question of getting pure bred animals to
grade up the native cattle became so important that
one county association, Clay, put on a sale of pure
bred Herefords, Angus. and Shorthorns. This sale
was held in the spring of 1914 and was a success in
every sense though the association had put on
the sale thinking it would lose money. This sale
was for the sole purpose of giving the people of the
county an opportunity to get pure bred animals at
a moderate price.
AS production grew, the question of feeding
and marketing became of first Importance. The
county associations took up this work and are doing
a wonderful good for the members The shipping
Of stock from Mississippi became so important that
two trunk lines put on special livestock trains to
St. Louis; the Mobile and Ohio running its special
every day from Meridian, and the Illinois Central
twice a week from McComb City.
Up to the present time there have been organ
lied in the State nineteen County Livestock Asso.
Citations. AS the work grew it was thought best to
change the plan of organization and make the asso-
citation cover other features than livestock. In ac-
%cordance with this plan more than twenty add.
tional clubs have been organized in which live
stock is a leading feature.
One special feature of the cooperative live
stock work is the creamery established at the Col
lege in 1912. At the time of opening there were
only three hundred cows in this creamery, at pres
ent there are more than two thousand. Largely as
a result Of the good accomplished by this creamery
there have been established in the State seven CO.
operative creameries, and most of these have bra oh
Swimming stations at points near the central estab-
lishment.
About the same time the College creamery was
established, the idea of cooperative selling of poul-
try and eggs was taken up and the first egg-selling
association in the southern states vas organized by
the College. Due to the success of this latter asso-
citation many similar ones have been organized
throughout the State.
The cooperative idea of creamery and egg
selling associations have attracted such wide notice
that recently the Agricultural College of South
Carolina has established one modelled after the
Mississippi plan.
SWAT TuE TT "