238 agriculture of maine. 



Thursday, December 4. 



COW TEST ASSOCIATIONS IN THIS COUNTRY. 



By A. M. Goodman, Bureau of Animal Industry, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



I am sure it gives me a great deal of pleasure to be here this 

 morning for at least two reasons, — one from a personal stand- 

 point, as I have a very pleasant recollection of about two weeks 

 I spent with Mr. Adams among the Maine dairymen last spring, 

 and also because I am deeply interested in the work for which 

 this day of your meeting has been set aside. 



What I have to say to you this morning will be of a rambling 

 and general nature. I may in the course of the few minutes 

 which I have at my disposal get down to some hard facts, but 

 there will be a good deal of generalization. 



The State Dairymen's Association of Maine is one of the 

 very first associations of its kind to devote a part of the time 

 of its annual meeting to advancing the cow test association, or 

 the dairy improvement association 'work. I must say that this 

 is a very commendable step for any dairymen's association to 

 take for there is surely no more simple, no more efficient and 

 no more economical way of improving the quality and general 

 standard of the dairy herd than through the cooperative cow 

 testing associations. A short time ago I had occasion to col- 

 lect some data from the records in the Department files and 

 it occurred to me as I was going over those records that if 

 any one not more or less familiar with the dairy statistics were 

 to go over the reports of the census of 1910 he would be hor- 

 rified to find that the average production of the so-called dairv 

 cows of this country was so low. The report for 1910 showed 

 an average production of 3,113 pounds of milk and 145 pounds 

 of butter fat per cow per year. That is terrible, but it is true 

 and we have to accept these figures whether we are proud of 

 them or not. However, we are not bound to keep these records 

 as low as that. They can be raised and I think they are grad- 

 ually being raised in a great many localities. I am always im- 

 pressed with the number of so called dairy cows that there are 

 throughout the country that are pulling the general average 

 production downward. There are a great many cows, as you 



