304 ANNUAL RErOUT OF TllK Off. Doc 



COW TESTING ASSOCIATIONS 



By HELMER RABILD, Washington, V. C. 



The subject of cow testing associations is one which is very 

 dear to my heart, because 1 have seen them in operation, and linow 

 what great things they have accomplished for dairymen in the old 

 world. 



As many of you knoAv, it was not my good fortune to be born 

 under the Stars and Stripes. 1 was born and raised in Denmark, 

 that little two-by-four country across the Atlantic Ocean, which 

 has an area of 15,00U square miles, and a population of two and a 

 half millions of people. 



I should like to go back in the history of Denmark a few years, 

 in order to show the tremendous lot of good the cow testing asso- 

 ciations have accomplished for its farmers and if 1 should say any- 

 thing about the dairymen of that country which you might con- 

 strue as a boast, 1 would ask you not to take it so, because no one 

 can be more loyal to the country of his adoption than I am to this 

 country. 1 speak of Denmark and the progress they have made be- 

 cause I am intimately familiar with it, have contributed my little 

 mite towards it, and because I believe we can find in the history of 

 this progress something from which we can draw a lesson. 



In 1848-41) and oU, Denmark was involved in a war. Although 

 this war was declared a victory for the Danish Aveapon, it drew 

 very heavily on the resources of the country. A large number of its 

 best men lost their lives in the struggle, and the expenses of the war 

 were yet to be paid. The nation was slowly recuperating from the 

 effects of the war, when in 1804 it was forced into a new war. This 

 war it lost, and with it the dearest possession Denmark ever had, 

 Schleswig-Holstein. The expenses of carrying on the war were still 

 unpaid, and the national debt, to use an expression often heard in 

 those days ''extended up over the chimney tops." This enormous 

 debt had to be paid by taxation of the resources of the country. The 

 resources of Denmark were very limited, there were no forests, no 

 mines, no industries, and no shipping, and the only resource which 

 could be taxed was the soil ; in other words, the farmers had to foot 

 the bill. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy. The rate 

 of interest was in 1872 three and one-half per cent, higher than it 

 was on the English burse. The taxes went sky-high, and the sys- 

 tem of agriculture carried on on the farm was not good enough so 

 that it could create funds enough to meet these taxes. The Danish 

 farmer had for many years been engaged in the beef business, and 

 shipped his beef to the English market; but just about at this time 

 the English farmer made up his mind that he might as well pro- 

 duce his own beef and keep that money in his own country, and so 

 he asked Parliament to restrict the importation of Danish beef. 

 This was done through Quarantine regulations, and the Danish 



