708 



Daisy Cattle in Denmark. 



[Nov., 



The best cattle on the islands had already attained a fair }ield of 

 milk before the beginning of this century; they have therefore 

 relatively gained most in respect of the richness of their milk. 

 In Jutland, on the other hand, the greater increase has been in 

 the quantity of milk. Averaging 18 herds of all three breeds 

 during a period of about 14 years there has been achieved the 

 very creditable result that the production of butter has been 

 increased by more than fifty per cent., while the yield of milk 

 has been increased by 26 per cent. 



The influence of the progressive farmers on their neighbours 

 has tended to raise the general standard of the dairy cattle 

 throughout the country. Even farmers who take no part in the 

 work of the milk recording societies reap a certain amount of 

 benefit from these as they learn where good animals for breeding 

 can be bought. 



Grants for Prizes at Shows. — It has already been mentioned 

 that by the Law of 1912 on Breeding of DomesRc Animals the 

 State made it a condition for giA^ng grants to milk recording 

 societies that they should send a report of yield and pedigi'ee 

 of each tested animal to their respective Provincial Agricultural 

 Federation. The State took further steps to encourage the 

 breeding of ajiimals with good records, by making certain stipu- 

 lations as to the grants to agricultural societies to be used to 

 supplement prizes at shows. Section 3 of the Law of 1012 eon- 

 tains the following provisions : — 



" After the expiration of two years from tlie enactment of this Law no 

 ji:rant shall be given for prizes for bulls of dairy breeds unlr-ss reliable 

 information be given of the yield of milk of their dams by quantity and 

 by percentage of fat. 



After the expiration of five years from the enactment of this Law no 

 grant shall be given for prizes for cows of dairy breeds unless reliable 

 information be given of their yield of milk by quantity and by percentage 

 of fat." 



It is worthy of note that, as in most similar aids to agriculture 

 given by the Danish Government, these provisions did not intro- 

 duce anything new or show^ the farming world a novel develop- 

 ment, but rather confirmed and made of general application 

 what had already been introduced by some of the agricultural 

 societies and found to be practical and useful. At the time when 

 the Law of 1912 was being drafted , the conditions requiring infor- 

 mation as to yields had already been in force for years at many 

 of the agricultural societies' shows on the islands. They had 

 not been applied to the same extent in Jutland, although at a 

 •Jubilee Show in 1897 the Federation of Jutland Agricultural 



