DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 38/ 



COW TEST ASSOCIATIONS. 

 By W. C. Stetson, Waterville. 



(Stenographic Report.) 



I regret that Mr. Hugh Fergus, whose name is upon the pro- 

 gram, is not able to be with us this morning. I am very much 

 interested in cow test associations, having been connected with a 

 cow test association for three and one-half years, which has been 

 in some respects one of the most successful in the state ; for one 

 reason, the interregnum between the outgoing and the incoming 

 officials has been very short. The tester's position has always 

 been filled very soon, and with men who have been more than 

 fairly acceptable, — who have been interested in the work. I 

 wish I might impress upon any one who is not acquainted with 

 the cow test association work, the real benefits of that work. If 

 you wish to get something a great deal better than I shall give 

 you, I would refer you to the report of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment of last year, in which there is a speech by A. E. Hodges, 

 which was of such an excellent nature that our Dairy Instructor, 

 F. S. Adams, when at Chicago, took occasion to quote at length 

 from it, giving Mr. Hodges due credit. Mr. Hodges is a rising 

 young breeder who has been president of the Waterville Cow 

 Test Association. 



The advantages of the cow test association ought to be appar- 

 ent to everybody. But principally, I think, the reason that 

 justifies the organization and continuance of the cow test asso- 

 ciation is a commercial one. All business, of every sort, needs 

 some kind of book-keeping; and while you may talk as much 

 as you please about the ordinary farmer keeping books, you 

 will talk about something that is an absolute impossibihty at 

 the present time unless there be some simpler method of keep- 

 ing books than has yet been invented. But in the official tester 

 of the cow test association we have a man who has been trained 

 at the Agricultural College in respect to those things that are 



