152 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Hood Farm Torono, exercised an extraordinarily beneficial 

 effect upon the productive qualities of the breed. 



6. New Cooperative Project. 



Your Committee wishes to bring to the attention of the Asso- 

 ciation a plan for a new cooperative project which the Maine 

 Agricultural Experiment Station desires to take up with the 

 breeders of Maine, provided they are interested in the matter. 

 The most important thing which a breeder of dairy cattle desires 

 to know is whether his animals are transmitting productive 

 qualities to their progeny. In particular, this information is 

 desired in regard to the herd bull, which constitutes one-half of 

 the herd. If, by chance, he is exercising a deleterious effect on 

 the productive qualities of the herd, he may, in a few years" 

 time, do a great deal of harm. It would appear to be beyond 

 doubt or question for practical purposes, that if a bull's daugh- 

 ters are, on the average, poorer milkers, or poorer in the quality 

 of their milk, than the dams from which they came, then the 

 bull which produced them is exercising a harmful effect upon 

 the herd. On the other hand, if a bull's daughters are, on the 

 average, measurably better than the dams from which they came 

 in productive qualities, then that bull is exercising a beneficial 

 effect on the herd. What the breeder wants to know at the 

 earliest possible moment is, which of these two categories his 

 herd bull falls into. The Maine Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion has worked out a plan whereby it is believed that it will be 

 possible to furnish this sort of information to the breeders of 

 the state more quickly and in a much more definite and precise 

 form than they have ever been able to acquire it hitherto. 



The plan of cooperation involves the following points: Any 

 farmer who will comply with certain conditions may at any time 

 have made for him by the Experiment Station an ofBcial daugh- 

 ter-dam test. 



The conditions are 



I. That he shall have in his herd, at the same time, both the 

 dam and her daughter to be tested. Or failing the actual 

 possession of the animals at the time, he must be able to furnish 

 satisfactory records of the milk production of the missing 

 animal, either daughter or dam, together with the other neces- 

 sary information for making the test. 



