The Secret of Successful Dairy Farming.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 148, 19 April 1909, Page 3

The Secret of Successful Dairy Farming.

Tbe wise man belie v?s dairy farming is largely brain work. Tbe ignorant man believes it is nothing but bard work. Tbe brainy farmer feeds bis mind with tbe best dairy thought and experience be can get. He trusts himself to know whether it will apply to bis location and climate. Tbe ignorant man feeds bis body only, and lets bis brain starve. He makes all sorts of excuses against feeding his mind; against taking in tbe valuable experience of bis brother dairymen. Maybe be says be doesn't think it will apply to his climate. Who ever heard of the science of arthimetic or any other science being different in one district than in another. How shall we learn to equalise all differences, and so extract valuable truth from all experience*? 1. By coming to understand that we know but very little about the mystery of maternity as seen in tbe

cow, and that it will prove mighty profitable to study human experience with her in all classes. 2. By studying the relation of temperature to the cow and her milk. Warmth to the proper degree promotes milk secretion; cold shrinks it. The proper degree is in the cow not her owner. She knows it; he must guess it. It is a question of comfort with her. This applies in every land under the sun. Intelligence seeks to understand it, get a judgment on it; ignorance ignores it, sneers at it, despises it, calls all this talk theory, and ends ! in failure. ■ 3. The law of wholesome food and j pure water is the same everywhere. : If we violate that law the maternity r of the cow will fail to respond to our [ profit. j If wc are ignorant in one place or the other concerning all these intricate laws, our location will not help us out. Hence, we should learn; and the quicker the better. The first great work in securing dairy salvation is to seek sound knowledge concerning the cow; how to breed her, how to feed her, how to shelter her, and how to keep her healthy; how to most skilfully handle her milk; bow to feed her I skim milk and get the most profit out j of it; how to handle the soil so as to i grow the largest and best food crops and still keep up the power and fertility of that soil. This constitutes a j big question, and the man who thinks I he can do it most successfully by keeping in ignorance of the current of : standard dairy thought is fooling himself badly.