1921.] 



Dairy Cattle in Denmark. 



599 



to pay for the fodder consumed and which are therefore kept at 

 a distinct loss to the farmer and to the country. When the Vejen 

 Society had been working for one year a report was puMished 

 in which it was shown that the best cow belonging to members 

 of the Society produced a pound of butter at the cost of 6d., 

 while the poorest cow produced a pound at the cost of 2s. 8d. ! 

 Cows Hke the latter should, of course, be fattened off and killed 

 as soon as possible. 



Of even greater importance, however, is the help or guidance 

 which the results of milk recording offer the farmer in his efforts 

 to breed dairy cattle for milk production. This was seen clearly 

 by the men who started the movement in 1895 ; indeed, the desire 

 to obtain reliable information on which to base the breeding of 

 cows with a large yield of rich milk was the chief reason which 

 uiduced the farmers to form the Vejen Society. By 25 years' 

 work the milk recording societies have gradually secured a 

 hitherto unknown reliability in the breeding of daiiy cattle. 

 By recording the yield of milk and butter the farmer would learn 

 not only which cows should be got rid of, but which were the 



butter cows," cows yielding a large amount of milk and butter 

 fat, and these he would use preferably to breed from. In the 

 by-laws of many of the Danish Control Societies, or Milk 

 Recording Societies, the principal aim is statod to be " based 

 on records of the yields of milk as to quantity and quality, and of 

 the fodder consumed, to determine whether the keeping of dairy 

 cattle yields a profit, and to help to form strains of dairy cattle 

 producing an increased yield of hitter.'' The Danish Govern- 

 ment has in various ways helped cattle breeding by grants. By 

 the Law of 1902 on Breeding of Domestic Animals the Government 

 granted £'6.700 to the Milk Recording Societies on condition 

 that " the Society should have for its aim to make dairy farming 

 more profitable by examining into the feeding of the individual 

 cows and their yield of milk by quantity and quality, and to 

 help to form strains of dairy cattle producing a higher yield of 

 butter." The grant was renewed by the I^aw of 1912. which 

 reduced or withdrew most other grants to cattle breeding. The 

 milk recording society should have at least 10 members with 200 

 cows, and the grant' to each society was not to exceed PAO. 



When Danish farmers, in the 'seventies and 'eighties of last 

 century, gradually learned to appreciate the importance of dairv 

 farming they tried to improve the yield bv better feeding and 

 better selection of animals for breeding. The means of judging 

 the cattle, at shows and at home, were restricted to a considera- 



