DAIRY FARMING.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2569, 1 July 1882, Page 4

DAIRY FARMING.

Recently the first of a course of lectures on the management of the dairy was delivered by Protestor Sheldon, at the rooms of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, in connection with the Dairy, Poultry, and Minor Food Products Exhibition. In the course of his remarks, M:r Sheldon said it was a suggestive fact that the consumption of milk, as milk, in England had greatly increased of late years, chiefly owing to the operation of the Adulteration Acts. He remembered well enough when it was dimoclt in many parts of London to get good milk, and the oonsequence was that muny people did without it altogether. Now, howcver, good milk was obtainable over almost the whole of the metropolis, the result being that the consumption had largely increased. In many of the old dairying distriots the cheese making industry had given way to the milk trade. The faot was that America, over a great portion of whioh he had had the privilege of travelling, was f.:.r better able than England to produce this oammodity cheaply. S 3 far as could ■be judged, the aim of the British dairy farmer of the future would have to be to produco fresh milk and fre&h butter ; and if the demand for these commodities was to increase, the authorities must see that the Adulteration Acts were properly enforced, and this not less in the interests of dairy f armors themselves than in those of the public -doming to the practioal aspects of dairy farming, he was bound to say that so far we had not made very much advance upon the methods of our ancestors. Wo >vere very conservative people with regard to our industries ; we were in no hurry to change, and ir some one had to burn his fingers in the introduction of a new thing, vro were in no hurry to make the Baorifiee. There were still great numbers of dairy farmers who look upon scienca as a hobby whioh was utterly useless to men engagod in tho practical work «f life. Happily, however, the younger men were beginning to see tho necessity of calling jeseeso to thsir aid if they were to be successful in competing with the dairy farmers of Europe and. Amerioa. Attor poinding cut tbdt there was no antagonism between practice and science, but that, rather, they were supplementary the one to the other, the lecturer said the competition of milk -was as follows : Water, 87 25 ; bnttor, 3S'l ; casein, 3.50 ; albumen, 0.i9 ; milk auifiv, 4.60; minerals, 0.75. The water varied from 83 65 to 90 00; butter, 1-80 to 5'20 ; casein, 3 00 to 500 j albumon, 0*39 to 0 55; sugar, 3'oo to 5 50; a3d jainerals, o'7o to 0-80. From thesu figures is might be argued, and very fairly, that surr.e tdmeu it happened that people were oonvicted of selling adulterated milk who were perfectly innocent. It was impossible to l»y dowu any hard and fast line with regard to the quality of milk, whioh depended not only upon the food but also upon the breed of the cow. Great discretion should therefore be exercised in the administration of tho Adulteration Acts. The yield of milk, no less than of the vegetable products of the soil, had been appreciably influcnesd by the recent wet seasons, and he knew instanoiis in his own part of the country—Derbyshire—-wbei-e the yield of cheese had been laduoed by fully one half. And, while milk bad diminished in quantity, it hud, from the same cause, deteriorated in quality. The avsraga quality of milk, list year, for example, was very muoh lower than it was five years earlier. All dairy furmors -must have notioud that the quality oi this mill", began to fall directly a spoil of cold weather sets in.

He had made many inquiries amonij poetical men as to what they considered the average yield per yeair of an nvcrjgo cow ; and as a result of the replies, he concluded that 440 gallons might be taken tis the average. Of course, coma cows give moro than thia, others leso. There &vo instances on reoord in which the quantity was np-warde. o" 1000 gallons, but there were far mere in which it was less than 400.

If the German methods of cheose-msking were adopted in this country, cur fanners wotild every year add fife or nij» millions i<> their prcfiti. The misfortune was thnt English, farmer; seemed to havo Tory little of that ragrcrd fc.r their occupation which one found ia France, Germany, the United Slates, and Canada. In America, for exsmple, the farmer* mot together at frequent intervale, and eun egtly discusaad their procipeots and methodii, insteed of holding aloof from eaoli otbor, t? did the farmers of England. Tha consumption of oheese in this country ws« about 4 z par head per week j ho beliovtd that by producing a more tempting articls it might be increased to lib per head. O butter, even less was consumed, abou? 3J-oa per head being the average, whereas it ongut o be at least from 10::: to 12 z. If a farmer old cheese at 75s per owt, or 7iji per lb, it mount that he only got 6Jd per gar lon for his mil j, to tbat if he sold his mill to tie London milk-dealer at from 7Jd to 81 p.-r gallon, it fetshed what was equivalent to from 85a to 90s per owt for cheese. Supposing milk to be worth Sd per gallon, it would tak« about 22 pints to make one pound of butier, which would be worth Is 63. Then tb.ire ■;i'hica, ut 4! 10d, so that uld mike a lanufacture, « wasplajn d get la G A id, and 4i y. much moßis -i to sell the ;uality **»& i'-ioiis, ar'F.h 7 ia vh Job UiM'" '£

explanation of this immense yield was that the animals ware of the tight sort, were properly fed, and were humanely treated, as cows ought always to be. They were shorthorn?, which in America, strangely enough, v--er< considortd only fit to make beef. Aoolbei notable c.iso was that cf Mr Simpzoti'b Lnnn i* most elegant fawn liko Jersey. In 1676. she gave 876 gallon?; in 1877,878; ana it 1878, 816, being an average of 857g»l!o7 g the value ui which, .<*t 8i the gallon, was £2B 11b 4i. There ware many breeds of 0.-iry cattl* on the Continent, among thorn r. Bavarian b-escl, net fttuoh larger than our Jarsoya, Their mean weight was 8501 b., but they ;.avtin avoritge ybld of 500 gallony. Ii; wa? obvious that a given yield was much more valuable from a small than from a large cow, because three small oows could be maintained at the eame expense as two large ones, or thereabouts. Some years ago the Dub) of Athola bought an Ayrshire oow from Mr Wallace, whioh, in one year, gave 1305 gallons of milk, representing £43 10a. Xhis was the hig'uosc record he had evor come across. Those instanoes, whioh he should not oonsider abnormal, though they were oertainly unusual, showed what the breeds were capable of. About two-thirds of the food a cost ato went to sustain the various functions of life, and it was from the remaining third that the profit came. A oow should be got to eat as much food as possible, provided she made good use of it. In England we had a great variety of cattle, and mostjother nations had improved their stook by orossing it with our breeds. There were Ayrshires, Jerso-ss, Shorthorns, Norfolks, Longhorns, Davons, and Herefords, and all these had been brought up to their present pitch of excellence by caroful selection. No doubt the foundations of the breeds were laid by Nature, but man had oarried on the work. It wae not generally known, perhaps, that the mUkyielding capacity of oows was an artificial capacity, tor in the natural stafca the animal only produced enough milk to rear her offspring, which wan a very small quantity. The lesson to be derived from these f iota was that if dairy farming was to be carried on eucctrsafull/, *e mutt not be content with what wo had already done, but must over bo driving after further inipro-vemunt by artificial selection, by careful treatmont, and by tho me of suitable food.