252 agriculture; of maine;. 



THE BENEFITS OF COW TEST ASSOCIATION WORK 



TO ITS MEMBERS. 



By W. W. Abbott. 



The first cow test association that was started in Maine was 

 the Waterford and Norway Dairy Testing Association. It 

 began its actual work Feb. i, 1908, and has run continuously, 

 wiith no break in its work or records, from that date. It was 

 for several years something of a struggle to keep the number of 

 cows necessary to carry on the work at a reasonable cost. Many 

 men seemed to get the idea 't^liat it was a sort of get-rich-quick 

 scheme, and all they had to do was to join the association and 

 the tester would do the rest. To get any benefit from a cow 

 testing association this will not do, — you must get busy your- 

 self, study your own records as well as those of the other mem- 

 bers, and study the feed rations of the other members, observing 

 closely the different methods of feeding and the results. Weigh 

 your milk each day, keeping daily records, add these records 

 up at the close of each month and you will be surprised to 

 see how closely they will compare with those of the tester. 



Another thing, some people seem to think that if a cow is 

 tested once, or for one year, they know all about her and it is 

 not necessary to test her any longer. I will cite one or two 

 instances in our association. The first year of our association 

 work one member had a cow that gave 404.4 pounds of butter 

 fat. The third year of this work this same cow, with the same 

 care, increased to 593.5 pounds of butter fat. Another cow in 

 the same herd in 1908 produced 354.2 pounds of butter fat, in 

 1909, 398.6 pounds, in 1910, 404.8 pounds, in 191 1, 466.5 

 pounds, and in 19 12, 489 poundis. Now any dairyman can see 

 what those records mean and what it would mean had this 

 man stopped at the first year. Each year fewer have dropped 

 out and we have had less difficulty in replacing those that ha/e 

 left the association. This last year only three left and we were 

 unable to take on all who wished to join, and by November of 



