630 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



This association had in the tenth year 639 cows. Giving the butter a 

 value of 30 cents a pound and the feed units a cost of 2.6 cents a unit, 

 these 639 cows returned during the tenth year $18,153.99 more than the 

 same number would have returned during the first year, or nine times as 

 much net profit. The cost of this splendid added income is less than $1 

 per cow, or less than $639 a year. 



The cow-testing records in Denmark and Sweden show other instances 

 where equally great improvements have been accomplished by profiting by 

 the lessons the records teach. To duplicate the improvement shown in 

 the foregoing table is indeed a worthy object for any cow-testing associ- 

 ation. 



THE COW TESTERS. 



The cow testers (the men who collect the data and make the calcula- 

 tions) are young men who have been trained for this purpose. The agri- 

 cultural schools have organized courses for the education of these men. 

 One of the conditions for entrance to the schools is that the young men 

 must have been raised on the farm and have had practical experience in 

 the feeding and care of live stock. At the conclusion of this training, fol- 

 lowed by one or two years' work in a cow-testing association, these men 

 are greatly sought after for positions of trust and skill in connection with 

 the dairy business. They can be found as managers and owners of dairies 

 and operators of creameries, and so well recognized is the effect of this 

 training that many creameries and dairies specify in their advertisements 

 for men to fill these positions that the men must have had such training. 



GENERAL RESULTS IX EUROPE. 



Reports from Denmark show that the average production per cow in 

 1908 had increased to 224 pounds of butter. This average is exactly twice 

 as much as it was in 1884. Much of this improvement has been accom- 

 plished as a result of the cow-testing movement. Reports from Sweden 

 show an equal improvement. The more indirect results are seen in better 

 system for all farm work, a livelier interest in the business of the farm, 

 and a better understanding of the technical problems connected with its 

 management. On the whole, the cow-testing associations have had a pow- 

 erful influence in interesting the young people in farm life and keeping 

 the population in the rural districts, and during the later years large 

 farms are being cut up into smaller farms, in order that they may furnish 

 homes for all the people desiring to engage in agricultural pursuits. 



ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



OPPORTUNITY AND NEED. 



According to the twelfth census the average production of butter-fat 

 per cow in the United States in 1900 was 145 pounds, which compared 

 with the average production of 224 pounds of butter per cow in Denmark 

 is entirely too low. The Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agri- 

 culture reports that on January 1, 1910, there were 21,801,000 milch cows 



