Farm and Garden.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 445, 27 October 1904, Page 2

Farm and Garden.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES. THE PROBLEM -OF PURE JHILKTHE main cause of impure milk is uncleanliness dirty cows, stables, milkers, and dirty cans. Dirt and pure milk are irreconcilable: pure milk must be clean milk. Dirt and harmful bacteria are inseparably associated, and dirt and disagreeable odours generally go together. In relation to milk, bacteria may be classified as harmless, beneficial, and harmful. Most bacteria find in milk an ideal medium for growth when the temperature is favorable. Upon the temperature depends the rate of growth. When milk is cooled to fifty degrees or lower, growth ia very slow, and some species do not multiply at all. Milk is also very susceptible to taints from disagreeable odours, quiokly absorbing any deleterious matters that may

surround it. Bearing in mind the connection between harmful bacteria and dirt, and between gaseous taints and dirt, the importance of cleanliness should be appreciated in handling milk. The cow herself, or rather the dirt on the body of the cow, is one of the principal causes of infection. The cow should be brushed and the caked manure washed off. The udder should be cleansed with a damp cloth before milking, especial care being taken to remove all dirt from the teats. The stable is a frequent source of dirt and bad odours. The floor should be cleaned at least daily and soiled bedding removed. Dust and cobwebs should not be allowed to accumulate. A stable with abundance of lighi is much superior to the semi-dark stable so frequently seen. In feeding dry feeds such as corn, fodder, or hay, or strong smelling feeds like silage, care should be taken to feed after and not before or during milking. No dust or strong odours are wanted at that time. If necessary to feed during milking, concentrated feed, slightly dampened, may be given. The milker very often adds his quota to the dirt in the milk. The oddest and dirtiest clothing is considered suitable, and to wash the hands is considered wholly unnecessary. The clothing and hands should at least be clean. The pail into which the milk is drawn and' the cans where stored must be thoroughly clean and scalded with boiling water. Scalding water should not be used first in washing cans, as that would coagulate the milk adhering to the inside and a yellow sticky coating is formed. The milk should be quickly taken to the store-room, strained and aerated. Milk should not be stored near manure heaps or any other strong smelling material. All cans should be emptied at once on reaching' the farm and the cans cleaned. That precaution is too often neglected, and the fermenting whey left in the hot sun for hours.

REAPING PIGS. Sows' milk is the natural food for young pigs, and when they are weaned they should be given food as nearly as possible like that which they have been having from their mother. A very good ration at that time is pollard one part, corn meal one part, and skim milk eight parts ; as the pigs grow in age and size, the proportion of food, rich in protein, should be reduced, I and the proportion of food, rich in carbo- ; hydrates, should be increased. For those I pigs that are to be fed for market the proi portion of food, rich in protein, may gradually be reduced, until within a few weeks before they go to market, when a ration of corn alone may be fed to advantage. The pigs that are .to be kept for breeders should never be fed on a ration made up entirely of corn, but part of their ration should consist of food rich in protein—such as pollard, oats, skim-milk, butter-milk, &c. The amount of these should be greater the younger the pig, and should form at least one half of the ration of mature brood sows. Another important factor, in pig feeding, is in furnishing the proper bulk to the feed. In feeding young pigs, and those that are being finished for market, bulkiness should be avoided ; but at other times during the life of the fat hog, and especially of the brood sows, bulkiness in the food is very desirable. That may be had by adding some finely cut clover or other suitable ingredient that has been either steamed or soaked in boiling water. The hulls in ground oats also furnish some bulk ; but when oats are fed to young pigs, where bulk is not desired, the hull should be ground very fine. When so ground oats may be substituted for pollard. Pumpkins make a very good supplementary feed during the winter months. They not only furnish bulk and succulence to the feed, but they also furnish considerable nutriment and tend to destroy worms, with which swine are very frequently infested. The saving in grinding corn, over feeding it whole, is about equal to the cost of grinding. But another important factor to consider here is the amount of food that is consumed over and above that which is required to support the live weight of the animal body. If pigs can be made to eat more by grinding the corn, of course there, would be considerable advantage in doing so. By grinding oats a much greater percentage is saved than by grinding corn, because the oat grain is comparatively small and has a very hard and thick hull, consequently is not so good a feed to use whole, as it is not so easily masticated.