DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



225 



animals in the herd as to their capacity for utilizing feed economically, but 

 he also assists the farmer in selecting those feeds which contain the greatest 

 amount of food nutrients at the lowest price, thereby creating a larger net 

 return per cow, per acre, per dollar's worth of feed, and, last but not least, 

 per man. This larger net return per cow is brought about not only by the 

 increased yield of the cow, but by improved economy in the conversion of 

 feed into finished product. 



As direct evidence of the value of the cow-testing association, we find 

 that a report of an association in Sweden states: 



"This association had in the tenth year 639 cows. Giving the butter a 

 value of 30 cents a pound and the feed units a cost of 2.6 cents a unit, these 

 639 cows returned during: the tenth year $18,153.99 more than the same 

 number would have returned during the first year, or nine times as much net 

 profit. The cost of this splendid added income is less than $1 per cow, or 

 less than $639 a year." 



The experience of a dairyman who purchased a $20,000 farm and gave 

 a $10,000 mortgage is related by Mr. Helmer Rabild, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, as follows: 



"There were seventy cows upon the place when it was purchased. These 

 cows averaged 7,320 pounds of milk per year. After keeping records for a 

 year, the owner sold all but 28 of his cows, as they were not making enough 

 profit. He raised the heifers from those 28 cows, and at the end of six 

 years had 71 cows. The extra profit which this better herd has given 

 amounts to $2,580 every year. It was figured that with the profit which he 

 was receiving from his original herd it would take him 29 years to pay off 

 his mortgage, but with the profit which he is now receiving he can pay it 

 "off in three and one-half years." 



Now if we will return to the organization of a military company we will 

 find other officers besides the captain and the corporal. They are the lieu- 

 tenants and sergeants. Where in the dairy community is there a place for 

 such other officers and what would be their duties ? I am reminded that in 

 some dairy communities they have breeders associations. Through the cow- 

 testing associations the "boarder cows" are weeded out, and in the 

 Breeders Association the quality of the herd is improved. Now in forming 

 a breeders association, it is necessary that a number of farmers agree that 

 they are willing to breed one kind of cattle. That is, they must agree to 

 use a registered sire of one breed and jointly or in partnership be the owner 

 of a dairy sire which would be used by them all. 



Community breeding as it is generally practiced consists of a number 

 of farmers who form an association and buy and own in partnership one or 

 more pure bred, registered sires of the same breed, and by their use seek 

 to improve their stock. Such associations may have three or more members. 

 If twenty members form an association, four or five sires would be re- 

 quired. The members would be divided into sections or groups, and to each 

 group would be assigned a single sire. These groups would be arranged so^ 

 that the four or five members of each group would be near neighbors. If 



