281] THE PRODUCTION OF BUTTER 57 



pounds of butter fat during the past year. 1 Many cows of 

 the Jersey, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Holstein and Shorthorn 

 breeds are producing from 500 to 600 pounds of butter a 

 year. The record for butter of thirty years ago has been 

 exceeded by over 350 pounds. This has been accomplished 

 by breeding. What could be accomplished if every farmer 

 in the United States would serve his cows with pure-bred 

 bulls? In 1914 the U. S. Department of Agriculture esti- 

 mated the number of milch cows in the United States to be 

 20,737,000. It is not beyond the realm of possibility to in- 

 crease the average yield of cows to 300 pounds of butter. 

 This would mean, however, an increase of over 140 pounds 

 of butter per cow. If all the butter fat of this increase 

 were converted into butter and valued at 20 cents a pound, 

 which is considerably less than the present yearly average 

 butter price, it would add a gross income of over $580,- 

 000,000 to the dairy interests of the United States. If the 

 average production per cow could be raised to 300 pounds 

 of butter, the total value of dairy products in the United 

 States, estimated in terms of butter at 20 cents a pound, 

 would be over $1,244,000,000. The great importance of 

 these cooperative cow-testing and breeding associations is 

 therefore apparent. 



COOPERATIVE BUYING ASSOCIATION 



These associations are formed for the purpose of buying 

 feed and fertilizers in car-load lots at reduced prices. In 

 some places a special association is formed to buy coopera- 

 tively and transact the business. In Gallia County, Ohio, 

 the farmers organized a cow-testing association and also a 

 buying association. 2 The usual way, however, is to buy 



1 The test was supervised by the New Jersey Agricultural College. 

 Vide, Hoard's Dairyman, July 2d, 1915, p. 818. 



2 Hoard's Dairyman, Dec. 16, 1914, p. 746. 



