DAIRY MEETING. II3 



simply to test the dairy ability of their animals. It is not a 

 cast iron, but an India rubber affair. There are no hard and 

 fast rules. They can be modified as dictated by circumstances. 

 The system that is used in Europe may not obtain here. The 

 methods that are employed in the Dominion of Canada may not 

 be those best adapted to our conditions. Indeed, the condi- 

 tions are such right here in New England that the form of 

 organization best adapted to you in Maine may not be, and in 

 my jvidgment perhaps is not, the best to use in Vermont. But 

 the underlying principle is always one and the same, to afford 

 a ready, accurate and inexpensive measure of cow ability. 



Co-operation among dairymen in cow testing was first started 

 in Denmark in 1894 or 1895. You know how small a country 

 that is ; yet two or three years ago there were well nigh a 

 thousand of these associations, with some tens of thousand 

 human members of them and some hundreds of thousands of 

 four legged members. The average milk and butter products 

 per cow have been greatly increased as a result of their work. 

 I have not the figures with me, but I am safe in saying that, in 

 round numbers, the butter product per cow in Denmark in 1907 

 as compared with that of 1896, when the associations were first 

 started, is increased more than one-fourth. The movement 

 has spread from Denmark to Scandinavia and Holland, to the 

 British Isles, Germany and France, and all through the dairy 

 sections of Europe. When I addressed the meeting of the 

 Quebec Dairymen's Association in the winter of 1903-04 they 

 were just starting the first cow testing association. Last year 

 53 were in operation in Ontario and Quebec. The first one 

 was started in Michigan two years ago, and that one is now 

 the parent of a dozen or more. There are several in Minnesota, 

 a dozen in Wisconsin, and doubtless others elsewhere. 



The scheme possesses great potentialities. There is a con- 

 certed movement on foot among the New England dairy inter- 

 ests to foster the formation of associations. A meeting was 

 held at Amherst, Mass., last October of representatives from 

 the various New England states. Means were considered there 

 whereby the inception of these associations could be fostered. 

 The report of the committee was published in the New England 

 Homestead about a month ago. As evidence of the interest 



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