Farm Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4363, 21 January 1909, Page 4

Farm Notes.

New Zealand Dairy Produce.

(Continued.) W li vc received from the Depart m rit of Agriculture a report by the Dihy Commis i ner (Mr D Cuddie) on hi ■ >cc nt visit to Great Britain in conne ion with the inspection of butter and, ch c-io on the Home markets. The Co 'iniissioner also paid a visit to Denma k

the present juncture anything aff cM g the Dairying industry is of considerable importance to this Dominion - mire especially those on the land. In speaking of New Zealand Creamery butter, Mr Cuddie goes on to sav : A VISIT TO DENMARK —Dairy Schools—

There are two dairy schools in —' k, and both of them are carnenron in connection’ with a School of Agriculture. The schools are the property of private individuals, and are not controlled by the Government.

The dairy students are not taught the practical work of making butter and cheese. A permanent staff attends to the manufacture of the produce at both of these schools, and the students occupy most of their time in studying the theoretical side of dairying from text-books. Students wishing to take the higher branches of agriculture and dairying science may do so at the Royal Agricultural College at Copenhagen, after having studied at the dairy schools.

The following particulars of the Agricultural and Dairy School at Dalum may be of interest : —Dairying— Course of four months’ duration

(April-July). Number of pupils, about 55. The pupils are of an average age of about 22-23 years, having worked previously from three to four years in butter and cheese factories.

Their previous education is similar

to that of the winter pupils. Modes of teaching : For all practical purposes (arithmetic, writing, drawing, land-surveying, and suchlike) the pupils are divided into two cr three classes (according to ability). All other subjects are taught in common by means of daily lectures and frequent examinations, for which the pupils prepare themselves by means of

text books. No terminal exami-

nation and no passing certificates. Besides arithmetic and writing, the following leading subjects are taught :

Physics (including mechanics and engineering). Chemistry.

Botany (iucluding elementary bacteriology). Anatomy and physiology of animals, and their tending and feeding. Dairying (history and general theory) Finally, practical instruction is given in milk-testing (systems Fjord, Gerber, &c.), general bookkeeping, and differential reckoning (system Fjord) for the paying for the milk according to the percentage of cream.

Tho dairying course gets a special yearly grant from the General Government of £llO.

In connection with the school a model dairy is kept up, towards the maintenance of which the Government contributes yearly £55. The poorer pupils obtain grants of about £6 through the local authorities. The total cost of the whole course amounts to about £lO 10s. In addition, the school occasionally gives short special courses (of one to four weeks’ duration) ; subjects—milking, testing of milk, tending of small farms (for crofters and small r resident farmers), &c. —The Farm— The farm appertaining to the school is neither an experimental farm nor a model farm in the sense that everything is to look well without regard to cost. The plan is to run the farm on business principles and for profit in -such a way that it may serve as an example to ordinary dairy-farmers. As the pupils are made acquainted v i:h the whole book-keeping, etc., of tlie farm, and are at liberty to examine the stock and general work, it may be said to enter as an item in their instruction, although no practical farm-work is directly taught at the school. Acreage of farm, about 92 acres (excluding the space occupied by buildings, garden, football-green, etc.) It is divided into nine fields of equal size (gi acres), besides a permanent pasture-field. Soil very variable. The rotation of crops is as follows : 1. Rye. * 2. Sugar-beets and seed-mangolds. 3. Oats. 4. Mangolds. ' 5. Barley. 6. Oats. 7. Clover and grass. 8. Grass. 9. Mangolds, different fodder-plants .ifSAverage yield : Cereals, about * , %opw_ti%>er acre ; mangolds, soocwt ; * Suglh*-beets, 3iocwt. Stock : About 50 head of cattle (30 milking cows, 20 bulls, heifers and yearlings), 7 horses, 100 pigs yearly, and about 150 poultry. Breed of cattle, Red Danish. Feeding : In winter the full-milk-ing cows get a fodder consisting of (English) of hay, nib of straw, Bolb of-mangolds, and from 7>b to 1 db of cake. .thf suimVierhalf the daily foddu r Average Produce . »,7° j aresom Dairy—- , ... da iry, besides being usej mYWbproduced on the farm. 'V ♦- (To be continued). ?