150 BETTER DAIRY FARMING 



232. Owners must help. — The value of the area system is, 

 however, being overemphasized. It must be borne in mind that 

 the accredited herd plan is only a method of helping the owner 

 clean up and of giving him recognition when he has done it. No 

 plan, no matter how good or how well directed, will succeed unless 

 the owner has the desire and the ability to carry it out. Desire 

 which is stimulated by indemnities is not the kind that will result 

 in clean herds. Under the present accredited herd plan, which 

 places insufficient emphasis on the attitude and ability of the 

 owner, money is being paid to owners who never will clean up 

 their herds and keep them clean. This is a big objection to the 

 area plan. No area will remain clean except by the intelligent and 

 constant effort of every owner. The area plan may ignore owners 

 sufficiently interested and intelligent to make a clean-up successful, 

 because they are not in areas being worked, and waste time and 

 money on other owners, who have no qualifications except being 

 in the path of the projected clean-up. The idea of the accredited 

 herd plan is fine but its absolute dependence for success upon the 

 individual owner should be realized by everyone,- not only in clean- 

 ing up his own herd, but also in supporting the working out of the 

 plan in his state and locality. 



233. The Tompkins County plan.— This is a modification 

 of the accredited herd plan being tried out in Tompkins County, 

 New York. One bad feature of the accredited herd plan is that 

 the testing must be done by a state or federal veterinarian or no 

 federal indemnity is received. Thus, the local veterinarian whose 

 services the dairyman prefers and who is entitled to do the work, 

 provided he is properly qualified, is discriminated against. To 

 overcome this objectionable feature there has been organized the 

 Tompkins County Accredited Herd Co-operative Association, 

 Inc., which has entered into an agreement with state and federal 

 authorities whereby the testing may be done by properly accredited 

 local veterinarians without loss of federal indemnity. This plan 

 localizes the responsibility of conduct and supervision. The work- 

 ing out of this plan should be watched with interest and if success- 

 ful should commend itself to other localities. Further details of the 



