ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 641 



herd comes an interest in better cows and better care of the cows, and 

 a tendency to make greater discrimination in price between good and 

 poor animals. The introduction of better cows on the farms creates a 

 desire for more of them, and a larger number of cows renders it possible 

 for creameries and cheese factories to collect more milk or cream in a 

 given territory, thus reducing the cost of collection. 



The increased interest in dairying stimulates interest in dairy and 

 kindred associations and creates an interest in purebred stock. In the 

 Newaygo County Dairy Testing Association, where during the first year 

 only one man owned a purebred dairy bull, 22 such bulls were found 

 among the herds during the second year; and while no purebred cows 

 at all were owned in the first year, 21 were bought during the second 

 year. This interest has steadily increased, and during the third year a 

 breeding association was organized. Such increased interest in purebred 

 stock naturally affects the market for such stock, and entitles the move- 

 ment to the hearty support of the breeders' associations of the different 

 dairy breeds. 



The consumer is interested not only in greater economy in the produc- 

 tion of dairy commodities, but in improvement of their quality, which 

 is promoted by sanitary stabling and better care of milk on the farm. 

 These results follow from cow-testing associations wherever tried, and 

 the consumer should for this reason give encouragement to such organ- 

 izations. 



RELATION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO THE WORK. 



The United States Department of Agriculture, through the Dairy Divi- 

 sion of the Bureau of Animal Industry, has been largely instrumental in 

 encouraging the inauguration of cow-testing associations in the various 

 dairy states, and has always worked in cooperation with the state author- 

 ities. In many states no funds have been available for conducting the 

 work, and the department has furnished the services of an organizer 

 and has supplied blanks and record books free of charge, in the hope that 

 when the value of the work has been demonstrated the states would 

 appropriate sufficient funds to carry it on. 



Such appropriations should cover the expenses of organizing, such as 

 salary and traveling expenses of an organizer; they should also provide 

 for the printing of books and blanks for compilation of the records, and 

 for publication of the same. 



It is advisable that some state authority should supervise the work, 

 and that occasional visits should be made to the associations, so that 

 difficulties may be straightened out should they arise. It is also desirable 

 that the supervisor of the work should attend the meetings held by the 

 associations and give advice to the tester and check up his work, in order 

 to get the highest degree of accuracy. Many of the states have already 

 provided for such supervision, and for furnishing the material as well as 

 for compiling the records, and it has been the policy of this department 

 to encourage the assumption of state control of the work. 



In the promotion of this movement the dairy division has sought to 

 forestall some of the defects under which the work in the older coun- 

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