No. 4.] COW-TESTING ASSOCIATIONS. 175 



HEPOET OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON FORMING 

 COW-TESTING ASSOCIATIONS. 



[Read and accepted at the Annual Meeting, Jan. 12, 1909.] 



Your committee, appointed at the winter meeting of the 

 Board in Greenfield to consider the matter of cow-testing 

 associations in this State, have attended to their duty and 

 beg leave to submit the following report. 



There is no question but that such associations, if rightly 

 organized and wisely conducted, would be of great benefit to 

 the owners of dairy cattle and to the public at large. The 

 testing of the cows would without doubt increase their value, 

 and also improve the breeding of our dairy stock. These 

 associations have been in existence many years in Denmark 

 and other great dairy countries. The Canadian government 

 has for a decade or more been doing everything in its power 

 to improve the agricultural conditions and to enlarge the 

 agricultural products of that country. It is standing sub- 

 stantially all the expense of a yearly test of the pure-bred 

 cattle in the Dominion. In the bulletin of the rules and 

 regiilations governing such cow testing the following lan- 

 guage is used : - — 



It is recognized that improvement of the milking herds of this 

 country is largely dependent upon the dairy qualities bred in the 

 sires employed from year to year. It is recognized, further, that 

 all pure-bred dairy sires do not possess inherited dairy qualities of a 

 high order. So-called dairy form and show ring characteristics are 

 frequently found in sires that do not possess inherited powers of 

 high milk production. Breeders of grade milking herds anxious to 

 improve their cattle have frequently been sorely disappointed in 

 the progeny of even high-priced sires of this character. It was to 

 guide dairy fanners in the selection of sires that could be depended 

 upon to improve their herds that the record of performaiiqe was put 

 into operation. 



