No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 305 



farmer lost his last resource, the beef business. JMaiiy of them de- 

 spaired of ever making; enough money to meet the demands of the 

 heavy taxation on their iiigh priced land, and a large number left 

 their farms and homes to be sold at sherilf sale to come to this 

 country and try to make a new home for themselves and their 

 families. Some, however, for reasons sentimental or otherwise, did 

 not want to leave the country of their birth ; they would rather 

 starve there than live in plenty anywhere else, and these were the 

 ones who have made Denmark the dairy country it is to-day. 



The cows that were on the farms in Denmark at that time were 

 principally beef cows. The average i)roductiou of butter per cow 

 in 1884, just twenty-tive years ago, was only 112 pounds of butter 

 per cow in a year. The Danish farmer soon realized that if he 

 wanted to make any profit in dairying Avhich, at that time, gave 

 promise of staple markets for butter at fair prices, it was necessary 

 that he should develop a better producing strain of cows, and he 

 started in to select from his native cows, the individuals which 

 showed that they possessed dairy quality, bred them to good sires, 

 and raised their female progeny, and in tliis way he has succeeded 

 in raising the average production per cow until in 11308 was 224 

 pounds of butter per cow a year. He has virtually changed tlie 

 beef breed into a dairy breed by selection and good breeding. Along 

 with this came a great improvement in the prosperity of the country, 

 which in 1872 was on the verge of bankruptcy, and to-day it stands 

 as second richest nation of the world in per capita wealth. 



Now, ladies and gentlemen, that is what cow testing associations 

 and dairying have accomplished for the Danish farmer, and it ex- 

 plains why I am enthusiastic about these associations. The aver- 

 age production of butter per cow in this countiy 1o day is, accord- 

 ing to the United States census of 1900, only 142 ]»ounds of outter 

 per cow in a year. If we ligure that this butter sells for twenty-live 

 cents per pound, it means that tlie average cow brings in |35.50 in 

 a year. Now, if it does not cost more than this amount for feed, 

 the dairymen can just come out even; and if we figure that the skim 

 milk, the calf, and the manure will offset fhe cost in taking care of 

 the cow, the farmer has simply sold his feed to that cow at the 

 market i>rice, and has not made any profit on liis dairy operations. 



I do not see any reason why we should not be able to double this 

 production, as the Danish dairymen have done, for we have a bet- 

 ter climate, better feed, better cows to start with and just as good 

 men. But if we do, I think we must follow the same lines, and 

 perhaps adopt the same system that the Danish farmers did. 



That is the reason why the Dairy Division of the Department of 

 Agriculture has interested itself in the organization of cow testing 

 associations, and have experimented with them in this country until 

 we have learned that with some modification they can be successfully 

 operated under our conditions. 



We have in this country to-day fifty-two cow testing associations, 

 and there is promise of a good many more. A cow testing associa- 

 tion, to be brief, is simply an organization of twenty-six farmers 

 which club together for the purpose of improving the profits from 

 their dairy operations, through selection of the individuals in herds 

 which show special dairy tendencies. Such an association employs 

 one man who goes fi-om place to place once a month among the mem- 



20—7—1910 



