THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 23 



was then that someone suggested that if one man could afford 

 to buy a good dairy bull a number might club together and buy 

 one in partnership, and in this way the first co-operative breed" 

 ing association was formed. I have known, and I think it to be 

 the general rule, that the price of a good dairy bull amounts to 

 several thousand dollars; and the demand upon the services of 

 a bull became so great and the cost so expensive that it was 

 agreed that only the cows with a certain standard of dairy qual- 

 ity could be entered as eligible to membership in the association. 

 It became necessary to find the productiveness of the cows, and 

 this encouraged the formation of cow test associations. 



I remember distinctly when this association was organized 

 in my home county. I worked at home at that time on the farm, 

 and my father was a member of the test association. Usually I 

 did not have anything to do with the cows ; we had about eighty 

 cows on my father's farm, and had a man that did not do any- 

 thing but take care of the cows, and my duty was to look after 

 the work in the field. You can imagine my surprise, one day, 

 when my father told me to stay home from the fields and watch 

 the work in the cow stables. I asked him why, and he said, 

 "We are going to test this afternoon, and there is something to 

 be learned which you cannot afford to miss." I stayed with the 

 tester that day and every day he came after that, and I assure you 

 I began to learn. From that day I began to take more and more 

 interest in the cow and in dairying and I feel that interest has 

 been growing every year since. After the first day's work in the 

 cow stable with the tester, I began to look at the cows in a differ- 

 ent light. I could look at the table which was hanging over 

 each cow, showing the amount of milk she gave, tne test of that 

 milk, when she came fresh, how old she was, all her history and 

 pedigree, so to speak. I would compare those figures and facts 

 with her form, with her color, with the shape of her horns, and 

 all those things we used to consider had a great influence on the 

 quality of the cow, and I began to learn. I would go in for hours 

 and compare those figures. 



About fifteen years ago, as I said, the Danish farmers were 



