Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 293, 10 September 1910, Page 6

Farm and Garden

DUTCH DAIRYING. One of the places in Holland which seems to have left a deep impression on the students who recently were sent by the Glamoragn County Council to visit centres of dairying and study methods of butter and cheese production in the Netherlands was the model sanitary dairy farm "Hoftsede OudBusesm." This farm is in the province of Utrecht, and about three miles from Naarden-Bussem station. It is not a show place run as a hobby by an interested millionaire. It is the property of a company, and last year they paid 8 per cent, on their capital. Besides the accommodation provided by the old buildings built about 150 years ago there are new erections based on the most modern scientific principles. They provide for four cowhouses, two for 40 cows and two for 32 cows. It may be stated that the farm is 180 acres in extent, and that about 200 cows are kept altogether. Each cow is allowed 25 cubic metres (metre, 3.28 feet). The feeding troughs are of glaze/1 earthenware, are flushed from each end for cleaning, and are also readily adjusted into watering troughs. Water is laid on everywhere. The standing room for the cows is practically on the same level as the passage, but behind the cows and between the passages and their standing place is a manure gutter about 3ft wide and 2ft deep. In the centre of the gutter is a trap door. When cleaning the manure is pushed from each end to this trap door, and falls through on to a trolley, which is taken on a light line of rails to a covered-in manure shed, which has a concrete cemented floor. As soon as emptied, the man opens a bale of moss litter and sprinkles some over it, so that no ammonia will be lost. When the long dung has been removed water is turned on, and the gutter washed

down with long squeedges, as used by sailors when washing their decks. Thermometers are placed all over the cowhouses, windows open inwards and upwards, and when closed ventilators at their base are opened. All the cowhouses have electric power. The cows are fed with the best clover hay, crushed oats, and crushed linseed. The cows are out all the summer, and are milked in the fields., and, as usual in Holland, when being milked the hind legs are tied. When in the cowhouse they stand with their feet tied. The method of milking at OudBussem shows how details have been studied, and how the work is organised. One man milks seven cows. In each cowhouse are four or more wellfitted wash basins, and each milk-.r is provided with three pairs of clean overalls during the week. An elaborate process of ablutions is gone through, and when the milker has finished his seven cows there will be seven towels on the floor behind them. The milk as drawn is passed at once through a filter into Danish churns, and then taken to the milkhouse, which is about 300 yards away from the cowhouses. Here it is passed through a centrifugal milk cleaner, cooled, and bottled. The morning's milking is sent to Amsterdam, the afternoon's milking to Utrecht and Rotterdam, and it is retailed at Is 8d per gallon, or 5d per quart. Tt is not alone the cows that are studied at this model farm, but also the workers. Each man is paid 10 guilders, or 16s 8d per week out of which he pays back 4 guilders, or 6s Bd, and receives in return board, lodging, washing, and a supply of clean overalls. The married men are provided with cottages. The unmarried men live in a clubhouse, where they have each a separate little bedroom, and well-appointed public rooms, and where everything is scrupulously clean and sweet, and in comparison with which British lodging-houses for working men are pigstyes. Cleanliness and orderliness may be said to have developed into a mania with Dutch farmers. If there is one lesson that has been learnt by the Glamorgan dairy students that visited the country it is that our standard of cleanliness in respect of cows, cowhouses, and dairies is miles below that set up and practised in Holland. At "OudBussem" not a straw was out of its place, and it should be borne in mind that the place is a commercial dairy farm which pays a dividend of 8 per cent, yearly.

INDUCING PEAS TO POD

The first peas can never be ready too soon, and any practice which will hasten their development is sure to meet with favour. There is one simple way of making the pods fill quickly which everyone may practise. It is this: As soon as they are well in bloom, pinch out the point of every one of tne shoots. This stops their further progress upwards, and all the pods underneath will fill up much quicker than if growth had not been checked. Indeed, this will make at least ten days' difference as to the time when the crop will be ready. Few vegetable crops pay better for watering than peas. As soon as they show flower, and until the pods are ready for gathering, they may be watered once or twice weekly with liquid manure. The drainings from a manure heap are excellent for this purpose, and, failing these, a small handful of guano, dissolved in a three or four-gallon watering pot, will make the pods fill up satisfactorily. Few would think of watering peas in wet weather, but I have frequently practised it when they were not suffering from drought, and the advantage was soon visible. Peas well fed at the root are always more juicy and sweet than those which suffer from want of abundance of nourishment or moisture. It also makes a great difference to the length of time during which they can be gathered. Starved rows are soon over, but those which are well supplied with liquid manure will goon blooming and bearing for a surprising length of time.