REPORT OF STATE DAIRY INSTRUCTOR. 2? 



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find men for official testers and to hold them for a year. If 

 this work is to continue and give a full measure of success it 

 seems as though the College of Agriculture would have ^ 

 special concern in this work. We now have five active asso- 

 ciations. There are two dormant, those at Winthrop and 

 Monmouth. I think that these associations can be reorganized, 

 and an attempt to do this will be made early next year. An 

 association was started in Piscataquis county last July. After 

 three months the tester left and the principal of Foxcroft Acad- 

 emy thought the association could be managed by the agricul- 

 tural class in the academy. While this may work out all right 

 with a few lectures near by, for educational purposes, it is not 

 practicable for the students to do the work required by an asso- 

 ciation of this kind. This was demonstrated last year at Free- 

 dom Academy. The cow test associations whose members take 

 an interest in their regular meetings are the ones that are doing^ 

 the best work. Speakers are furnished at these meetings by the 

 Department of Agriculture and the College of Agriculture, 

 without any expense to the association, and in the summer meet- 

 ings are often held at the farms of some of the members. 



In closing this discussion of cow test associations I want to 

 emphasize what I said last year. They are the best associations 

 for more efficient dairying of any we know about. I also believe 

 that more attention should be given to breeders' associations. 

 Wt now have fourteen in this state. In some of these associa- 

 tions there seems to be a lack of interest on the part of the 

 members. It is a true saying that no association or organization 

 can help its members unless they try to help themselves. The 

 possibilities of breeders' associations are almost unlimited, in 

 organizing community associations and cooperating in adver- 

 tising and selling stock. 



During the year I have attended twenty-one grange meetings, 

 seventeen dairy institutes, eighteen farmers' institutes, twenty 

 cow test association meetings and twelve breeders' meetings, a 

 total of eighty-eight meetings, with a total attendance of 6,947 

 and an average attendance at each meeting of 80. 



The annual meeting of the Maine Dairymen's Association 

 was held in Bangor in connection with the annual meeting of 

 the Seed Improvement Association. This was one of the most 

 successful meetings ever held in the state. A detailed report 



