120 CO-OPERATION IN DANISH AGRICULTURE 



(J) To keep a record of the total milk yield. 



For each cow entered an entrance fee of Is. is charged. 

 Annual expenses are levied on members according to the 

 number of tests taken for fat in milk samples. 



A committee is elected at the general meeting for a period 

 of three years ; each member has one vote. The committee 

 appoints the control assistant. Members are to find him 

 board and lodging while he works on their farm. 



Control Societies had their origin in Denmark, and they 

 are generally reckoned to date from the year 1895, although, 

 as mentioned, one society at least was formed a few years 

 earlier. From the society at Vejen they spread to Sweden, 

 where " Hvilan's Control Society " was formed in 1898, and 

 in the same year a similar society was formed in Norway. 

 The Danish farmers in North Slesvig formed four societies in 

 the years 1897-1900, and from these the movement spread 

 throughout North Germany and penetrated to South Germany. 

 In Finland societies were formed as early as in 1899, and spread 

 into Russia, particularly the Baltic provinces and Poland. To 

 Holland they came in 1900, to Austria and to Great Britain in 

 1904, to Hungary in 1910. In Michigan, U.S.A., the first 

 control society was formed in 1905 by a Swedish control 

 assistant. Canada, Argentine, and New Zealand, and almost 

 every country where dairy farming is of importance, have 

 followed the example, and have derived benefit from this kind 

 of co-operation, which not only helps to increase the economic 

 return of dairy farming, but lifts the work up from mere 

 drudgery so that it becomes an interesting industry based on 

 rational principles. i 



Control societies have spread to many countries. In many 

 of these they have joined to form associations. There has 

 even been to some extent international co-operation between 

 associations of control societies in different countries. A very 

 important branch of the work of the societies is to measure the 

 amount of food consumed and to regulate the feeding of the 

 individual cows according to their yield of milk and fat. In 

 order to do that it is necessary to reduce the value of the 



^ For information about the improvement in the yield of milk of Danish 

 dairy cattle, largely due to the control societies, see Appendix II., No. 11. 



