REPORT OF STATE DAIRY INSTRUCTOR. 1 83 



REPORT OF STATE DAIRY INSTRUCTOR. 



To the Hon. A. IV. Gilman, Commissioner of Agriculture, 



Augusta, Maine: 



I have the honor to herewith submit my report as State Dairy 

 Instructor for the year nineteen hundred and eight. 



As preliminary to the report I wish to state that the work o£ 

 the Dairy Division during the past year has been concentrated 

 very largely along the same lines as followed during the pre- 

 ceding year. The main thought underlying the work has been 

 the improvement of the productive qualities of our dairy 

 animals, and the different lines taken up in this report will be 

 considered in their relative importance to the above plan. 



i 



DAIRY TESTING ASSOCIATIONS. 



When the dairy testing work was first undertaken, it was 

 considered advisable to only attempt the organization of two or 

 at most three associations during the first year, as the plan for 

 carrying it on ought to be well developed in detail before being 

 placed in very extensive operation. It is well that such a course 

 was adopted, for many changes have been made in the record 

 blanks and in some phases of the work. 



The real purpose of a cow test association is to determine the 

 dairy value of the individual animal and the full scope of the 

 work can best be understood when we consider that dairying in 

 its broadest sense is not only the production of milk econom- 

 ically but the reproduction and improvement of the dairy herd. 



During the year one association has been organized. The two 

 associations formed in December, 1907, commenced active 

 work in February, 1908. As a report of the associations in 

 detail is to be published in bulletin form, later in the year, only 

 a brief outline of the results accomplished thus far will be 

 included in this report. 



