month telling about the work your association is doing. There is also a possibility of holding meetings each month at the home of the cooperators, discussing at such meetings feeding problems, breeding problems, and other things of interest. Let me take a specific illustration to show how one association is alive to its opportunities. Situated in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, in Addison County is the First Champlain Valley Cow Test Association, organized about five years ago and showing steady progress from the first. Some time ago I thought it would be a good plan to offer a prize for the best cow for milk, and the best cow for fat over a period of three years, scored according to a scale of points given later. The matter was taken up with the National Bank of Vergennes, they thought well of the plan, and offered to donate two cups for the competition. The cows winning the cups at the end of the first year are to receive them to retain them until the end of the second year, when they are to pass to the cows having the most points for the two years, and at the end of the third year they are to pass for permanent, ownership to the cows having the best scale of points for the three years. The scale of points by which the milk cow is to be judged is as follows: Allow 100 points for the first 6,000 pounds of milk. Allow 25 points for each 1,000 pounds of milk over the 6,000 pounds. Allow 4 points for each 100 pounds of grain fed under the rule. Deduct 4 points for each 100 pounds of grain fed over the rule. Allow 1 point for each 100 pounds of hay fed under the rule. rule. Deduct 1 point for each 100 pounds of hay fed over the Allow 1 point for each 250 pounds of silage fed under the rule. Deduct 1 point for each 250 pounds of silage fed over the rule. The scale of points by which the cow giving the most fat is to be scored is as follows: Allow 100 points for the cow giving 240 pounds of fat. Allow 13 points for each 20 pounds of fat above the 240 pounds. Allow 4 points for each 100 pounds of grain fed under the rule. Deduct 4 points for each 100 pounds of grain fed over the rule. Allow 1 point for each 100 pounds of hay fed under the rule. Deduct 1 point for each 100 pounds of hay fed over the rule. Allow 1 point for each 250 pounds of silage fed under the rule. Deduct 1 point for each 250 pounds of silage fed over the rule. You will ask why I selected the 6,000 pound cow as my standard. This was done for two reasons. In the first place most authorities tell us that the cow must give from 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of milk before a profit is really assured. Then too I believe this is the lowest mark which we should strive to reach in building up our dairies. My authority for adding the 25 points for each 1,000 pounds over the 6,000 pounds is found in bulletin number 357 published at Cornell in which the following statement appears. "The profit from cows yielding 10,000 pounds of milk a year was 51% greater than from those yielding 6,000 pounds." In other words if the first 6,000 pounds of milk is equal to 16 points per 1,000 pounds, each 1,000 pounds above should be scored at 50% more, or 25 points, and I feel you will readily agree with me that the cow having the ability to produce 10,000 pounds of milk should be scored double the points given the 6,000 pound cow. The points given and deducted for feed are scaled according to the price they bear to each other. For example, if hay is worth $12 per ton, grain can be bought for about $50 per ton, and if silage is valued at $4 per ton, hay can be bought at from $10 to $12 per ton. The scale of points for the cow giving the most fat is based upon the same principles as the scale of points for the milk cow. As you have already noticed each table refers to a rule for the amount of feed fed. After examining several formulae put out by various investigators, I decided that the one put out by the United States Department of Agriculture from their work in Indiana would answer better than any other, because of the fact that the year was divided into the two periods of winter and summer. From this data the amount of feed required for each 100 pounds of milk is as follows: In figuring the rule for fat the average test (3.7%) for the two years' work was used to find the total fat and this amount was used for determining the rule referred to under the scoring for the cow giving the most fat. The amount of feed required for each 10 pounds of fat was found to be as follows: Let us tarry a moment to see what merits the above plan has to offer to the Test Association. In the first place it will tend to keep the Champlain Valley Association before the people, as it gives them an advertising medium, which, I believe, no other association has adopted. It will have a tendency to create more enthusiasm and interest among the members, because as one writer says, "Right or wrong, man works for reward." The interest and enthusiasm will help keep the association together, and by having more interest the dairymen will study their books more carefully and thereby keep the tester at his highest efficiency. Then it shows the dairyman the value of the test over a period of years, because the cow making the big record for one year is not always the most valuable, as she may have freshened during the first month of the year and milk the entire year without a dry period, thereby making an exceptional record, yet her record for a period of years might not be much above the average of the herd. I have tried to point out to you some of the things to look forward to in test association work, as we enter the new period of reconstruction. If any of the suggestions will lead to the securing of better testers, or to the establishment of new associations, or to the betterment of present associations, I will feel that the dairy industry will have taken a step in advance in the Green Mountain State. RESOLUTIONS. The Vermont Dairymen's Association and the Vermont Sugar Makers' Association in joint convention assembled, thank hotel managements, press reporters, speakers, exhibitors, citizens of Burlington, everybody who has helped make this meeting a success. Especially do they thank Mr. E. E. McGaffey, the general agent of the Worcester Salt Company, whose product never loses its savor, for the delightful entertainment furnished on Wednesday evening. We rejoice that war drums throb no longer, that battle flags are furled. We thrill with pride as we remember Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel, Sedan and the Argonne. We look to Versailles for the consummation of a lasting peace. We stress the food values of milk and milk products. We realize that they are in a class by themselves among foods and want consumers also to realize the fact. We believe in advertising our wares. We favor organized educational campaigns which shall set forth their intrinsic merits. We applaud the efforts of New England and New York producers' associations to this end. We feel that the producer of milk is entitled to a price which shall repay him for his outlay and return him a fair profit on his investment. Consequently we array ourselves squarely on the side of any and all dairymen who, singly or collectively, strive to that end. We believe that in a world where organization appears to be the watchword, farmers must, should and will band together; and to every such movement we wish wise guidance and long life. We believe that the farm bureaus, maintained conjointly by the Federal Department of Agriculture, the College of Agriculture of the University of Vermont and the farmers of the several counties, have proven their worth; that the expansion of the system to include the employment of a home demonstration agent and of a boys' and girls' club leader in each county is desirable; that the continuance of the appropriation of a portion of the socalled emergency federal funds for the purpose would be welcome; that an increased state appropriation to the same end is urgently needed; and we instruct the incoming secretary to forward a copy of this statement to our Senators and Representatives in Congress and to the Chairman of the House and Senate Committees on Agriculture of the Vermont Legislature. Chas M. Winslow of Brandon, for nearly a generation Secretary of the Ayrshire Breeders' Association of America, formerly Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, a longtime and faithful attendant and frequent speaker at our meetings, died last summer. He was an ardent believer in the merits of the red and white cow, a good farmer, a successful breeder, a noted judge of dairy stock, widely known and universally respected among dairymen throughout the land. To him, more than to any other one man, is to be attributed the present satisfactory status of the Ayrshire cow among the purebreds of the country. A charming gentleman, a genial companion, has gone to his reward. A little less than two months ago, the great apostle of American dairying, full of years and honor, died at his home in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. William Dempster Hoard, son of New York, adopted citizen of Wisconsin, pioneer in more ways than can be named in the upbuilding of modern dairying, farmer, breeder, editor, publisher, public speaker, statesman, Governor, he undoubtedly outranked in his day any other living man in his influence for good along dairy husbandry lines. Hoard's Dairyman for 40 years has been a weekly visitor in tens of thousands of American farm homes. Its program has always been constructive, its face towards the sunrise, and its founder lived to see it perhaps the greatest single factor for good in printed form in connection with American dairying. The older generation of our members remember him at our meetings. They recollect his homely wit, his pithy sayings, his forceful utterances, his thoughtful argument. He came to us often and his heart was with us in the years when the weak flesh restrained the willing spirit. It is especially fitting that a memorial statue of Wisconsin's dairyman Governor is to be erected with funds contributed by dairymen the land over on the campus of the College of Agriculture of the University of Wisconsin. Surely his works do follow him. J. L. HILLS, The report of the Resolution Committee was accepted and adopted by a vote of the convention. |