THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 648, 4 March 1914, Page 2

THE RURAL WORLD.

MORE CHANCES FOR CHEESE. One great cause of the decline of English cheeae-making is that farmers find an easy and fairly good market for all their milk. The colonial farmers, who have not such good openings for the disposal of milk, turned their attention to cheese-making, and thus obtained a large market in this country. Now that large commercial centres are springing up in all the colonies the demand for milk is becoming so great that the culonial farmer is copying his English cousin by neglecting the making of cheese, and disposing of all his milk to the large towns to which he has convenient access. Other factors also are tending to a decline in cheeseing. Mr L. A. Zufelt. superintendent of the Eastern Dairy School, in an interview with a press representative, said: Those who are at all in touch with the situation know that the huge increase in the shipments of milk and cream to the growing centres of population has meant a pronounced decline in the cheese and butter-making industries of the province. Moreover,, in certain localities of Ontario the condensing factory has made its appearance, to the utter extinction of the local cheese factories. This has been the case in one or two of the greatest dairying countries in Western Ontario. The condenser has not yet come into our field, said Mr Zufelt, but other factors are at work. The greatest thing with which we have to deal is the enormously increased demand from Montreal and Ottawa for milk and cream. FEWER PIGS IN ENGLAND. There appears to be a shortage of pigs, not only in New South Wales and the Commonwealth generally, but also in England. At a meeting of the Yorkshire National Farmers' Union, held at Doncaster recently, it was stated that there are close upon 400,000 fewer pigs in England than in 1912, owing to the regulations of the Bonrd of Agriculture. A member moved a resolution protesting against the regulations. Another member declared this did not go far enjugb, and he moved that all restrictions be withdrawn, and tbe officsrß "sacked." A third member: I would have them shot. The resolution of protest was carried. PROFITABLE PIG BREEDING. How to feed pigs so as to get the greatest profit from the feed consumed, is thus explained in a letter to "The Leader" by a practical man whose operations are successful. He says butter milk, skim milk and root crop are not of much use as pig feed when used by themselves, but are very valuable when used with grain, meal or any other solid foods It takes 1201b of factory nutter milk per day to keep a pig 1001b weight in thriving condition, which means that 12 gallons of butter milk is equal to about 41b of pollard. But as the 1001b pig only requires from 31b to 41b of solid food, 91b to 121b of water or moisture per day, it cannot consume the 1201b of buttermilk per day, or if it could it would be too much for the kidneys or other internal organs to deal with, and the 1401b of uselessw ater would have to be kept ap to the animal heat at the expense of the lb of solid matter, so that there would be very little left to put on meat. The most profitable way to use butter milk ia to add 2|lb of pollard, grain, meal, or other solid food to each gallon of butter milk. That is a balanced ration, and then each 1201b of butter milk is worth 41b of grain, meal or otber equivalent, so that tbe present value of butter milk is 2d for 1201b, if treated as above. If you add only lib of grain meal, etc., to the gallon of butter milk you reduce the value of it to l£lb per 12001b, as threefourths of solid matter is used up in keeping the useless 601b of water up to animal heat. Separated milk contains about double the amount of solid matter that the butter milk does, and pigs can live on it and thrive slowly. It is quite possible to make a pig prime fat on it. Take a strong store pig, say, 601b weight, and give him as much separator milk as he can eat; he will become prime fat in about 16 or 18 weeks and the amount of milk he would use would be quite sufficient for two pigs.If you gave them a bushel of pollard each a week, in addition to the milk, they would be prime baconers in eight or nine weeks. As an example, take the following figures which are not market prices, but ju?t figures, for illustration. Say you paid £1 each for store pigs. The pigs fed on all milk show a profit nf £2 net. Tbe same amount of milk given to two pigs with 18s worth of pollard added shows a profit of £3 2s net in nine weeks. There is still a week's milk left, and the above can be repeated and the profit would be £6 4s as against £2 from the same amount of milk.

In the first of the above instances, the pig has to consume four times more moisture than it requires, and all this ÜBeless surplus has to be kept up to animal heat at the expense of the solid matter, and there is very little left, to put on bacon or pork. In the latter case it is a balanced ' ration; there is no useless or surplus moisture for heat, or to be kept hot so that a much larger percenage of food goes to forming meat. Root crops—sugar beet is the best — and swede turnips (cooked), carrots and mangolds come next. Pigs will live on them, and thrive on them, a little, but as it is not a balanced ration, a fair amount of grain meal, or equivalent, must be used in order to make them profitable for food.