EXHAUSTED PASTURES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 4, 30 September 1907, Page 2

EXHAUSTED PASTURES.

MENACE TO THE DAIRY INDUSTRY. • A well-known Wairarapa cheese manager informs our Masterton correspondent that the present state of tne majority of the dairy farm pastures in tho Wairarapa constitutes a menace to tho industry. JJriefly,. our informant declares that the majority of these pastures are exhausted, or arc fast relapsing into that condition, with the natural sequonco of a much-depleted

milk supply. Tho dairy cow of to-day did not givo nearly so much milk as slio did fifteen years ago, and as farmers generally hay not gono very fully into tho question of a food supply as a stand-by for their cattle, tile mattor wis becoming serious. Tho .Government supervision in tho past was all very well in its way, but it redly started at tho wrong end of tho stick, as it were. Dairy factory managers should be taught their business; but education was also required tor tho dairy-farmer, otherwise tho industry would bo in something liko the position of an architect attempting to erect a magnificent building upon no foundation. The question of a better class of pastures with winter food, so that cows should not bo driven in the coldest months of the year to graze upon sheep country, is a matter which might well bo touched upon by Government inspectors. , There is hardly any doubt that practical suggestions from'some one m authority will bo welcomed by farmers generally, who are well aware that tho better the condition of their dairy stock, the greater will.be the chance of fat dividends.