Vol. VIII. Xo. 200. 



THE AGKICULTUKAL NEWS. 



403 



the progress which is being mmle towaid tlie solution 

 of a certain agricultural problem, and thev serve as 

 a useful means for making public such results as are 

 being obtained where the e.xperiment is in course of 

 completion. Their \'ahie is naturally more partieularly 

 local, but they also have an interest which inclndes all 

 countries where tropical agriculture is carried on. 



Leaflets dealing with certain subjects are issued 

 from time to time by the Department. Each of these 

 has its own special use, and, besides being of rather 

 temporary concern, is usually a reprint of matter that 

 appears in one or moreof the other publications. There 

 is therefore no need for particular consideration of them. 



It is hoped that the facts that have been adduced 

 above, as to the scope and use of the periodical publica- 

 tions of the Department, will be of utility to those 

 who regularly take advantage of their contents, as well 

 as to those who have not completely realized, as vet, 

 how they may be employed as an aid in pursuing their 

 own particular interests. 



THE DANISH SYSTEM OF CATTLE 

 BREEDING. 



The following is taken from an abstract of a pafier 

 read before the Agricultural Sub-sectiop of the British 

 Association at Winnipeg, 1909, which appears in the 

 Journal of the Royal Society of Arts: — 



Denmark, mainly an agricultural country, which for- 

 merly grew corn for export, and raised very few cattle, began 

 to turn its attention to dairy farming after the middle of last 

 century. With the introduction of the centrifugal cream- 

 separator and the building of co-operative dairy factories all 

 over the country in the eighties, the system of dairy farming 

 spread to even the .smallest farms. The question of improving 

 the two national milking breeds — the black and white Jutland 

 and the red Danish dairy cattle— became important, and of 

 interest to almost all farmers. 



The work of improving cattle breeding in Denmark 

 being, as explained, of fairly recent date, has been gradually 

 developed in two quite distinct directions. Some features of 

 the work aim at encouraging prominent breeders to develop 

 herds capable of transmitting the most valuable qualities of 

 the breed, and inducing other breeders to take up this work, 

 while other features aim at the better utilization of the 

 breeding animals from these .superior herds for the improve- 

 ment of the cattle breeding in general. 



Already, about the year 1870, the classes for single cov.'s 

 were discontinued, and prizes otfered instead for collections 

 of cows bred by the exhibitor — a feature which is still con.si- 

 dered very important, the idea being to draw attention to 

 the best herds, which can more safely be done when a col- 

 lection and not a single individual is shown. In 1887, the 

 State caused special .shows to be held for bulls over three 

 years old, for the purpose of encouraging farmers to keep the 

 good bulls for a longer time. The result has been striking, 

 the number of old bulls shown having increased from 371 to 

 over 1,200. A special Danish feature has been introduced 

 with these shows, namely, judging the bulls through their 

 offspring, inasmuch as no ]3rize is awarded for bulls over five 

 years old unless their offspring, which must be judged before 



the show, ha.s been found satisfactory. This entails a good 

 deal of work, but has been found very useful. 



The judges at shows take into consideration not only 

 the points of the exhibited animal, but also, in the case of 

 bulls, the pedigree, including information on the milk produc- 

 tion of the dam, and, in the case of cows, the milk production 

 (quantity and quality). 



The Cattle lU-eeders' .Association has for its principal aim 

 the purchase of a good bull. The first Association was formed 

 in I8S3. From the beginning, these associations also 

 paid attention to the cows and to the health of the herds ; they 

 also required accounts to be kept of the feeding and the yield 

 of the individual cows. From 1887 the State gave a yearly 

 grant, which helped the movement on. There are now 1,300 

 Cattle Breeders' Associations, with 1,500 bulls, the State 

 giving £8 per annum per bull, on condition that the bulls 

 have taken prizes, that the committee select the best cows of 

 the members to be served by the bull, and that the committee 

 at least once a year inspect the herds on the farms as to the 

 state of health. 



While the other objects of the Cattle Breeders' Associa- 

 tions have been attained, it was different with the required 

 accounts of the feeding and yield of the individual cows. 

 The members could not manage these, and when, in the 

 beginning of the nineties, infoi'mation of the percentage of 

 fat in the milk was included in the requirements, it was found 

 necessary to take the whole matter up in a different way. 

 This led to the formation of the Control Union of Cow 

 Testing As.sociations. The object of these is to strike 

 a balance-sheet for each individual cow, for the guidance of 

 the daily feeding, for the weeding out of those cows which 

 it does not pay to keep, and for the selection of cows for 

 breeding. Farmers in a district appoint jointly a ' controlling 

 assistant', who, once every fourteen or twenty days, visits 

 each herd, weighs the milk of each cow, estimates the per- 

 centage of fat, weighs the food given daily to each cow, and 

 keeps account of it all. 



The information with regard to the yield and quality of 

 milk of the individual cows collected by the Control Union 

 is taken into account in awarding the prizes at the shows, and 

 is also made use of in selecting the cows to be served by the 

 bulls of the Cattle Breeders' Associations. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



Mr. H. A. Tempany, B.Sc., Assistant Government 

 Chemist for the Leeward Islands, has been appointed 

 provisionally for one year by the Secretary of State for 

 the Colonies to the post of Government Chemist and 

 Superintendent of Agriculture for the Leeward Islands. 



Mr. G. G. Auchinleck, B.Sc, arrived in Grenada 

 on the 22nd instant, by the R.M.S. 'Berbice', in order 

 to take up the duties of the post of Agricultural Super- 

 intendent in that colony. While in transit, Mr. 

 Auchinleck spent a week at the Head Office, engaged 

 in work connected with the post in Grenada. 



With reference to the announcement in the issue 

 of the 27th ultimo, relative to the appointment of 

 Mr. C. R. Kirton to act as Agricultural Instructor in 

 St. Lucia for a period of six months, it should be stated 

 that Mr. Kirton, on his arrival in that colony, found 

 himself unable to take up the duties of the post, and 

 returned to Barbados by the R.M.S. 'Berbice', on 

 November 30. 



