28 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



butter fat those fifteen men had deHvered the past year. V 

 those records I went out to those 15 men and found out 

 many cows they had kept during the last year and then averc 

 the income from each cow, and in only one instance was the 

 come $25, the rest averaged from $18 to $20 per cow per ye' 

 Now, if those farmers could feed those cows for twenty dolLtrs 

 a year they must be dandies. 



I have a report of the work in the first cow testing associa- 

 tion. 



The average production per cow has increased in Denmark 

 in a period of nine years almost a thousand pounds of milk, not 

 far from 40 pounds of butter, and that the test has been increas- 

 ed from 3.32 to 3.54, and that in spite of the fact that 30 per cent 

 of the cows in the association aborted or were farrow cows, and 

 in spite of the fact that many of them were affected with trber- 

 culosis. 



When we started the first test association in Michigan w* 

 were met with some suspicion on the part of the buttermakers in 

 that community. The association was located in a locality froni 

 which three creameries drew their patronage, and the butten.. - 

 ers in those creameries fought the association with all their 

 might. They were afraid that the farmers would be dissatisfied 

 with the test at the factory as the result of the work of the asso- 

 ciation. They were afraid that the test on the farm and the te.t 

 at the factory would not agree, but one of the buttermakers tokl 

 me, after he had seen the association at work one year, 'nat 1 e 

 had not had a single complaint from any of the members of the 

 association, and they had become enthusiastic dairymen m that 

 they understood testing and variations in tests better ar.?i iiad 

 become friends and supporters of the creamery. Those v^e the 

 things that lead me to believe that we could do no better tl n or- 

 ganize cow testing associations in every community where there 

 is interest enough to support one, and to the creameries I \/ould 

 say that they can do no better than endeavor to organize one lu 

 their respective communities. They will find their patrons vvdi 

 be better satisfied, there will be more milk within easy rci:li of 

 the factory, and more profit for themselves and their patrons. 



