112 CO-OPEKATION IN DANISH AGEICULTUBE 



This and the following annual accounts gave in hard figures 

 indisputable proof of the great difference in the economic 

 value of different cows, as some yielded a considerable profit 

 while others consumed in value much more than they returned 

 in milk and butter. A few farmers in other parts of the country 

 also had the milk of their cows tested. The principle of judging 

 cows by yield and food consumption was introduced in con- 

 nection with a competition between entire herds of dairy 

 cattle, begun on the 1st October, 1894, and carried on during 

 two whole years by ' * The Patriotic Society of Funen.' ' Through 

 the influence of Hempel-Syberg, Gjelskov, the energetic chair- 

 man of the Funen Committee on cattle breeding, the following 

 conditions were embodied in the rules for this competition : 

 / that the milk yield of every cow in the competing herds should 

 / be weighed every month, and the percentage of fat estimated, 

 ' that the amount of fodder should be controlled and complete 

 records kept by a salaried assistant engaged for the purpose. 

 This was the first introduction of the itinerant " milk con- 

 troller." 



Although, as described, the Kildebrond control society was 

 the first of its kind in Denmark and in the world, it did not 

 give the impulse to the " Control" Societies on co-operative 

 lines which soon afterwards sprang up all over the country. 

 It was a pioneer and deserves all credit as such, but it was just 

 a couple of years too early in the field. The fully matured 

 plan, which gave the impulse, took shape at Vejen, near Askov, 

 and if one man must be named as the father of the movement 

 he is Niels Pedersen, the managing owner of Ladelund Agii- 

 cultural School, mentioned in a previous chapter, who spoke 

 the prophetic words about the co-operative dairy movement, 

 describing it as "a wave from the sea in the West." Some 

 inventions made in other countries materially helped to prepare 

 the way. One obstacle to the development of the system of 

 milk-testing had been the necessity of having the testing done 

 at the dairies, as the " control apparatus " had to be worked 

 in connection with a steam-driven cream separator. And at 

 the dairies there was, indeed, little time to spare for this extra 

 work. In 1891, Dr. Gerber, in Ziirich, published a method for 

 estimating the amount of fat in milk, and described an apparatus 



