DAIRY MEETING. 1 79 



the field organizing and directing cow test associations. The 

 Dairymen's Association of Wisconsin have two men in the field 

 who do nothing else except to organize and direct cow testing 

 associations. The Department of Agriculture in Canada has 

 four men, I am quite sure, doing nothing else. The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in Michigan has one man who does nothing 

 but organize and direct co-operative breeders' associations. I 

 have not seen anywhere an account of a dairymen's association 

 in session that has not recommended the prosecution of this 

 work. 



I have tried to make my talk very brief and still give a report 

 of what has been done. 



At a recent meeting in Readfield the official tester made a few 

 comments on the work there, and I have taken just a few notes 

 from it. He reported one cow producing butter fat at ii cents 

 a pound and another one producing it at $1.85 per pound. In 

 one herd of cows one animal had produced 82 pounds of butter 

 fat, less than any other, and it had cost three times as much per 

 pound as with the best cow in the herd. One man could sell three 

 cows and still be making money. Another man had marked two 

 cows for sale because they were dry about four months in the 

 year. He found out from the individual record that they had 

 already produced, one 305 and the other 315 pounds of butter 

 fat. Because they had gone dry so long he had made up his 

 mind to sell them. The best cow of one herd in ten months 

 had made a profit of $31.43, and the next one had made a loss 

 of $10.55. 



A. W. GiLMAN. 



I have had the pleasure of visiting some of the cow testing 

 associations and I am satisfied that since I have had anything 

 to do with the Department of Agriculture we have taken no step 

 that will do so much towards encouraging dairying as this. 

 The farmer as a rule is a very busy man, and it is impossible 

 for one man to do everything. When we first began to discuss 

 the cow testing association movement, even so distinguished a 

 man as Prof. Hills of Vermont thought at first that we should 

 form a cow testing association and let every man test his own 

 milk, balance his own ration, and feed his own cow, and be, 

 responsible for the result. That did not appeal to me at all. 



