THE TRAIN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 8

THE TRAIN.

AN IDEA WORTH NOTING. *Mn Indiana, U.S.A., a private railway company every year sends out a train •fitted np for agricultural lecturing and demonstration. The company provides the train and hauls .it, wliilo tho State' Agricultural Station finds the lecturers and exhibits. The company's object is to develop agriculture in the districts through which its lines run, and thus to increase its traffic returns. If such work pays a hard-headed American commercial concern, it should be worth, considering whether it would not pay the Railway Department in New Zealand. . An exchange states that the Indiana train consists of three coaches and a double side-door horse car. Lectures of 15 minutes' duration were given at the different stations and sidings in the railTray carriage, while tho horso car" contained three cows for demonstration purposes. After a lecture of 30 minutes had been given, 15 ininutos was devoted 'to demonstration work with the cows. One of the doors of the horse car was thrown open, and two Jerseys were shown to the audience. Pamphlets were handed round explaining the importance of keeping milk records, and tho remarks of the lecturer, as given in an exchange, ran on the fol- . lowing lines:— • • • ."Hero you see two Jersey cows. Can anyone say offhand which is the better? .The first cow cost-about ,£lO per annum to feed. She produced .€ll 10s. worth of milk, or ill 15s. worth of butter-fat, so you had about 355. profit per annum for the pleasure of milking her twico a day. The second cow, another Jersey, is a better producer, and gave ,£l9 worth of milk. This cow also cost. .£lO per annum to feed, but she showed a much larger profit. /We"get at tho value, of these cows by record. Every farmer should keep a record of his cows, the same as every other business man does of his business- and manufacturing costsSl The record is the,; only way to get at;,the value of cows for. dairy,; purposes..' There are over 000,000 coiva in' tho State' ! of Indiana. One-thir'a' of them aro of the same type as tho first cow shown, 60 that about 200,000 cows' in this State are producing practically no profit" at all. These Jersey cows are more suitable' for a district where 'butter is made." The second door being thrown open, and a Holstein cow shown, the lecturer continued: "This is a Holstein cow; she cost .C 2 more per annum to feed than the Jersey cow, or JEI2. .She produced butter-fat valued at ,£l7, or milk valued.at .£3B. The milk from a Jersey cow contains a larger percentage of butterfat, but the Holstein is the milk-producer foi- this fresh-milk district. This cow, by record, produces over 1100 gallons of milk per annum, or about ten times her own weight." The lecturer explained the build of the cow, the udder, milk veins, and pointed out the general characteristics that mark a good cow, with the animals in front of the farmers to make his remarks inicl- . ligible. It is stated that from 50 to 200 farmers attended at every station, and a wonderful change was noticeable in x the interest shown compared to tho experience with a train run on somewhat similar lineSjSome three years before, the farmers then being rather shy and dubious of tho whole business,