THE DAIRY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 952, 7 May 1879, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE DAIRY.

HOW LUNG SHOULD COWS GO dry; If cows are well fed it is not ncc-ssary to dry them off three or four mouths before calving, but as cows are generally wintered they need all of this tune trecruit their wasted energies, and ir-ti-.i'-r s' n-isgt.h for the new demand. A cow -Ivii.-g milk n quires double ihe f" o-l to keep Tn til.: .cm : c m-liii -n that. she d..=-s food is liberally dealt o'lf. ioc-. v-. th.-y ■-*.i'l do w.-ll with sht: res' <•! nvnth. '' two cows -Je:-3, y and : ti i Avrshire— viiicli have jusr c-'im: >»• tin; former being dry a month, :-nd the litter live weeks! They went to the pasture until within a day or two of calving, and were fed no extra feed. The pasture was the second growth of meadow, and was rank and succulent. The Ayrshire cow was not dried up. We stopped inilkin" her regularly, and then occasionally reduced the bag, milking it out clean between three and four weeks before the calf came. The day she calved her bag measured 25 inches from front to back, and 14 inches across. The calf was large and strong, and so was that of the Jersey cow. The same cows came in last December, after being dry about a month, and did well. We have three Jersey cows due to calf in March, which we shall dry off by the Ist of January, as the fodder we intend for them is coarse and lacking m nutrition. A cow is better off m all respects if she is kept warm and quiet and tolerably well fed, than to be knocked around and exposed to the cold, e\en though she may be allowed to go dry twice as Ion". Some fanners seem to think that if° their cows go dry three or four months they are bound to be all right, regardless of the treatment they receive. Ti7is profound rule is well enough, but it should be supplemented with good care, at least humane, and plenty of nourishing f..od ■ and when this is done the rule may be abolished, and each cow managed acceding to her individual characteristics and habits. If a cow is thin in flesh and run down, let her be dried off early in the season. If another cow is strong and in -rood flesh she may be milked nigh up to the time of calving, and she will do well. If time is given for the udder to enlarge, and other organs to assume a normal condition, the requirements of mture will have been satisfied, :md this is all which should have heeu required. Alt-.wins the udder to expand and fill up .<—■ in-, io siimuia".- !:.e secretory glands to renewed and mole vigorous action. Being dormant or four months will not do it. but Lfood toivi and t-..e oflort nadue to provide for the coming event will do it. —F. D. Curtis, Kirk Homestead, N.Y. POISONING MILK.

From England we have a report of a recent case of serious poisoning by a morning draught of milk, l pon examination it was found that the can from which it was taken was foul with " decided appearances of fungoid growth aud some bacteria adhering to the joints, which w<-re entirely filled by a solid mass of decomposing constituents." The trite lesson of this is the necessity for something more effective than a "slight perfunctory rinse. Dr. Mutter, who gives the details of the case in the Analyst, advises all consumers to look to the caii3 in which the milk they bnv is carried, and if they have not been rendered thoroughly clean and bright, inside and out, by sand, " elbow-grease and scalding water, then seek supplies elsewhere. Unfortunately the milk-can is too often a dull, dirty, and unscrubbed receptacle, capable of conveying, as above shown, a dangerous fernientivo poison.