1905.] 



Milk Testing in Denmark. 



2 1 



such cases the spores have doubtless come in boxes, &c, returned 

 from market. The most hopeful line of attack is probably 

 to find a disease-proof variety ; the variety that is at present 

 commonly grown has been going for many years, and is 

 generally propagated year after year from his own stock by 

 the grower, who rarely tries a change of seed. Something 

 might be done by giving the establishment a year's rest from 

 cucumber growing, so as to get rid of the disease spores ; for the 

 very general idea amongst market gardeners that the disease 

 has now spread to other plants out of doors is a mistaken one, 

 the many kinds of leaf blotch which were so common out of doors 

 in 1904 being caused by quite different fungi. 



A. D. Hall. 



MILK TESTING AND CONTROL IN DENMARK. 



In connection with the arrangements referred to in the pre- 

 ceding number of this Journal (Vol. XL, p. 743) as to the 

 testing of milk for farmers by the Agricultural Colleges of this 

 country, it may be of interest to describe the milk testing or con- 

 trol societies which exist in Denmark and in several other Con- 

 tinental countries for the purpose of enabling farmers to ascertain 

 the productive capability of their cows, and thus to control the 

 constitution of their herds and the average production of milk 

 and butter. It is recognised that the profit from a cow depends 

 on three factors — (1) the milk yield, (2) the percentage of butter- 

 fat in the milk, and (3) the fodder consumed. Thus, to take an 

 example from a report of one of these societies, two cows gave 

 respectively in 1900 (A) 10,267 lb. of milk and (B) 10,653 lb. \ 

 the difference in quantity was not great, and both cows might have 

 been regarded as fairly equal. The tests showed however,that the 

 average fat content in the case of (A) was 275 per cent, and in 

 the case of (B) 3*56 per cent, giving a difference in the butter 

 produced in the course of the year of 112 lb., while in addition 

 the cow (A) had consumed considerably more fodder than the 

 other. It was to reveal such cases as this and to enable the 

 Danish farmer effectively to control the milk production of his 

 cows that the first of these societies was started in 1895 at 



