246 agriculture; of maine, 



was started. Or if we go at it in a slightly different way, and 

 find the difference between the first year and the second year 

 then the difference between the first and third and divide that 

 by two, the difference between the first and fourth, and divide 

 it by three, and then total these averages and divide by three, 

 we find that there is an average increase of $6.17. You see 

 that the increase has been a perpetual one. It has come grad- 

 ually but continued year after year. 



Now think what these figures mean. These men have in- 

 creased the profit from their cows, practically 100 per cent. 

 Now, if a man is making a little money from his herd, it 

 seems to me there is a chance for him to make more. There 

 are some interesting things on these charts from both mathe- 

 matical and business standpoints. The profit has been increased 

 at the rate of over $6.00 a year. It has cost the farmer some- 

 thing; it has cost him some good, hard earned dollars, and at 

 the same time think what he gets back. In four years he has 

 doubled the earning power of his herd. If it cost him five dol- 

 lars a year, that was a good investment, because he has double^! 

 the earning capacity of his cows ; if it has cost $25 for the four 

 years the money has been well invested, but as a matter of 

 fact it has cost only about four or five dollars. That was one 

 of the early associations organized on the plan of $1.00 per 

 cow. They could well afford to pay two or three dollars a cow. 

 We will say that they paid $2.50 a cow; they have doubled the 

 earning power of their cows and at the same time have been 

 getting over 200 per cent on the money invested. 



I want you to look at these charts and think about them, and 

 if there are any questions I can answer I will be very glad 

 to do so. I want to say again in closing, that there is no more 

 simple, no more efficient, and no more economical way of im- 

 proving the dairy herd than through the dairy testing associa- 

 tion. 



