2b ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



afford to buy it. It cost something like $150, and the ordinary 

 farmer could not afford to buy it, and then the first co-operative 

 testing association was organized in a community right around a 

 creamery, and so well did the idea take there, that today Den- 

 mark has several hundred testing associations. 



I hold in my hand a report of the first dairy test association 

 ever organized, and it gives the result of ten years' work. Eigh- 

 teen hundred and ninety-five was the first year of the work, and 

 1905 was the last year, and there is a great deal of valuable infor- 

 mation in that little pamphlet. They found, for instance, that 

 in some cases the profits had been increased 100 per ecnt or more; 

 in a great many herds the profit has been increased fifty per cent, 

 and on an average, in those ten years, the production of butter per 

 cow has been increased from 217 pounds to 255 pounds. That is 

 an increase of thirty-eight pounds of butter in a year per cow. 

 That means over 19,000 pounds of butter have been produced this 

 year over ten years ago. If you figure a pound of butter at 

 twenty cents that means $3,900 have been received by those 

 farmers over the amount received ten years ago, figuring the cost 

 of butter and the number of cows the same. Now, I think, that 

 is a very good inducement for us to take up something of that 

 kind, because the expense of carrying on that work has been only 

 about $300 a year, and the gain has been $3,900 a year. This 

 association has 522 cows now, and I am sure that only half of 

 the farmers of Denmark have taken advantage of all the lessons 

 that have been taught in that work. You can see if all the farm- 

 ers and dairymen would take advantage of it, that amount might 

 at least be doubled. 



It has taken about ten years for the Danish farmer to awak- 

 en to the importance of keeping good cows and weeding out the 

 poor ones. He is wide awake now, and I assure you that we 

 can expect good results from Denmark for the next ten years. 

 The work of these dairy test associations in Denmark has been 

 fostered and encouraged by the government. 



Now let me explain the work of these associations. If a 

 certain community decides that they can support a cow testing 



