AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IN DENMARK. 77 
full 125 kroner ($33.50). (4) Members are jointly liable for any 
debt incurred by the society, apportioned among members according 
to the number of cows they have registered with the association. 
In buying a bull in Denmark the common practice is to pay a cash 
sum at the time of sale and to agree to pay an equal amount on con- 
ditions depending on the winning of certain prizes at the local, 
provincial, and State livestock shows. The actual working of this 
plan is illustrated by the following instance. In the Hojrup com- 
munity, near Pederstrup village on the island of Funen, there is a 
bull association with 22 members and 150 cows. , In the summer of 
1921 this association purchased a 2-year-old bull, considered one 
of the best young bulls of the Danish red dairy breed in the province. 
The purchase price was 8,000 kroner ($1,422 at exchange) in cash 
and 8,000 kroner conditional prize money. A few weeks later at 
the provincial agricultural shows, this bull won first prize. Imme- 
diately the association paid the former owner 2,000 kroner of the 
scheduled prize money. 
Different methods of financing the buying of a bull are employed 
by associations: (1) The undertaking is financed entirely by a loan 
executed by the association, members having pledged joint financial 
responsibility. (2) Each member in the association pays an entrance 
membership fee of 50 kroner ($13.40 at par of exchange) ; if more 
money is needed, the balance is raised by loan. (3) Each member 
may pay an initial fee per cow registered with the association. The 
agreements with members are usually made on 3 to 5 year periods, 
and financial arrangements are planned to have the bull paid for at 
the end of this period. 
COW-TESTING ASSOCIATIONS. 
In the sharing of Federal appropriations for cattle-breeding im- 
provement, the Government has placed much stress on the cow- 
testing association's work, especially since 1912. 
The first cow-testing association was formed by 13 farmers in the 
neighborhood of Vejen in 1895. 55 It was probably the first associa- 
tion of its kind in the world. A great deal of credit for the early work 
of the cow-testing associations is given to Neils Pedersen, owner 
and principal of the Ladelund Agricultural School. With the forma- 
tion of the association, he immediately arranged for a special 
course in the agricultural school for training young men to take 
charge of the cow-testing work. Later similar courses were estab- 
lished in the other agricultural schools. Employment of a man to 
determine the fat content of each cow's milk and the keeping of 
feed records of the cows owned by the farmers in the association are 
on a cooperative basis. 
The cow-testing association plan was a success from the beginning, 
and was a real contribution to the dairy industry. Their numbers 
have increased steadily as shown by Table 14. The 295,290 cows 
in the cow-testing associations in 1922 represented about 23 per cent 
of the total number of milk cows in the country. 
55 Kontrolforeiiingerne og Deres Arbejde 1895-1920, Copenhagen, 1920. 
