GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 867, 13 July 1910, Page 10

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

There, has' been : a good.de'al of comment lately;in,Australia regarding the practico.'..of a .number of .factory managers sending;their butter to market in .second-hantt boxes. One merchant .points out,.'(saysJ; an exchange) that butter had : worked : its; way into tho joints -'of .the case's, it deteriorated, arid the box carried colonies of germs. Washing andj:leanmgjwero useless. The boxes would have to bo .taken to pieces to destroy them, liven then : it was doubtful if "they could bo relied upon'.' -Fresh butter "put into those boxes at once contracted these germs. Dealers .'handled ;a; large number of them. It was through dealing with so many that they could not'keep them from becoming dirty!' Many of the boxes used had been lying in dirty parts of stores as long as a month.

A Berkshire, grade sow. belonging to Mr. J. Williams, of Seville, Victoria, farrowed 101' pigs within four'years, 91 of which were reared. '• A" sow from those' farrowed within , :; 12,..imonths 30 strong pigs, 17 of .which, w.ero, sold at a clear profit of. £23 '9s. .2d'., be'sidos supplying the farmer with 2801b. of pork, and her second year begins with a litter of. 12. - ' ■

The London "Times" suggests that a register of purebred seed should bo established which might do for crops something analogous to| what, tho herd and flock books do for our stock. The big seed corn firms havo hitherto been the guardians of pure seed. But however much care one or two great firms may take of their stock, tho mixed state of,the crops usually seen is evidence enough that tho mass of distributors lack something of either tho knowledge or the care necessary to ensure tho purity of their strains. Moreover, tho ordinary fanner frequently buys his cereal seed corn not from a seed merchant, but from another farmer, and it is for cereals, and also for tho benefit of farmers at large, that a register would bo established.

Somo interesting figures have recently been prepared, which show that the milk of the ewe is, compared with that of the cow, very rich in solid mntters (says an Australian paper). As an experiment, several ewes wore milked tor 15 weeks', and gave an average daily yield ranging from 1.941b. to 2.70 lb. The milk contained 19.98 per cent, of solids, an average of 5.11 per cent, of protein, 9.27 per cent, of fat, and 4.6 per cent, of sugar. The 'evening's milk proved richer in solids and fat than that produced, in the morning. The largest yield is equivalent to .-. production of 26.11b. daily for every 10001b. live weight. This compares fay-

ourably with tlio cow in total milk yield. Analyses showed that ewe's milk may often contain 19 per cent, of total solids. It will be seen, ■ tlioreforo, tbat tho cwo may produce' a relatively large amount of dry matter. A cow producing at tho same rato, 10001b. live weight, would produce daily 38.11b. milk.