DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 1 53 



2. The breeder or farmer undertaking such a cooperative 

 test, under the directions furnished by the Experiment Station, 

 must agree to keep a careful and accurate record of the milk of 

 the animals on test over a period of time mutually agreed upon 

 (7 day, 14 day, 30 day, 90 day or one year). 



3. Samples of the milk of the animals on test shall be regu- 

 larly taken, according to directions which will be furnished, and 

 sent to the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. There an 

 analysis of the milk will be made and the necessary calculations 

 for making proper age corrections for the animals concerned 

 will be carried out. An official report will then be rendered to 

 the breeder as to whether, in the particular case involved, the 

 sire produced a daughter which was a better or a poorer pro- 

 ducer than her dam when both are compared on an equal age 

 basis. 



4. The only expense to the breeder involved in having such 

 a test carried through is the expressage on the samples of milk 

 to Orono. This cooperative daughter-dam testing project will 

 be open on precisely equal terms to owners of grade cattle as 

 well as owners of pure-breds. A Station circular giving full 

 details in regard to this cooperative testing project will probably 

 be issued shortly. We shall be very glad for an expression of 

 opinion from the members of the Association in regard to this 

 proposed cooperative project. If the farmers do not want to 

 undertake this sort of work, the Station does not wish to force 

 the matter in any way. 



m 



7. Breeding Experiments. 



The experiments in cattle breeding which are being carried 

 out with the LFniversity of Maine have proceeded satisfactorily 

 during the year. The only known method of making an ade- 

 quate analysis of the laws of heredity is that of experimental 

 hybridization. It is the method which has led to all that we 

 know of heredity at the present time. No other method to 

 replace experimental hybridization has yet appeared in the litera- 

 ture of science. It is the method which was used by Darwin, 

 by Mendel, by de Vries, by Johannsen, by Bateson and by every 

 other worker who has significantly advanced our knowledge of 

 heredity. 



