5 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [274 



The payment of the tester's salary is apportioned among 

 the members according to the number of cows that they 

 contract to have tested by the association. This is the 

 largest expense item. Each member agrees to pay $1, or 

 in some associations $1.50, per cow a year, and to give 

 board and lodging to the tester during the time that he is 

 testing his cows. When the number of the cows in an 

 association is 500, at the rate of a fee of $1 per cow, the 

 tester has a yearly salary of $500, in addition to board and 

 lodging. In the contract signed by the members of the 

 association pledges are given to provide the necessary fund 

 out of which the tester's salary is paid. 



In order that each cow may be tested once every month, 

 it is necessary that the herds number only 26, because there 

 are 26 working days in a month and the testing of one 

 herd is usually all a tester can do at one milking. If two 

 testers are employed, the number of herds can of course be 

 doubled. The tester must be able to operate the Babcock 

 tester and make simple calculations and record these in the 

 farmer's book. He must also be prepared to give advice as 

 to feeding a properly-balanced ration. Matters of feeding 

 and care are usually discussed in the evening. 



At monthly meetings of the association the members also 

 discuss problems that arise, and business is usually com- 

 bined with pleasure. The object of these cow-testing asso- 

 ciations, as stated before, is to determine the net income 

 from each cow. This is an innovation among farmers and 

 goes right to the root of the problem of how to increase 

 the yield of the milk. The effect of these cow-testing asso- 

 ciations is therefore going to be far-reaching. Up to the 

 present time the great majority of farmers have done very 

 little bookkeeping and they know absolutely nothing of the 

 relative costs of their crops. In business it would be re- 

 garded as ludicrous not to keep books, and it is time that 



