FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 18 April 1907, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

BREVITIES. The growth of the pig litter depends entirely on the quality and quantity of the mother's miik.

A little patience ill teaching horses to be gentle and obedient will often add pounds tot heir value.

In rearing breeding sows the object is not to fatten them, but enable them to develop healthy frames. Young pigs want a good start in developing bone and muscle, and the food should be arranged accordingly. Experiments at the Illinois Agricultural College go to show that the number of pounds a horse can pull on a load, as measured by the dynamometer, should not exceed one-eighth of the weight of the horse.

The men who are studying and adopting modem methods and modern equipment are crowding out the fanner who still goes on in the way he learned from his grandfather.

Electricity will cveamally be the agricultural handmaiden and servant. We shall touch buttons and electrical appiiauces will do the H-st.

COW TESTING,

Testing cows fur the quantity and quality of their milk yield is coming more and more into vogue. If a dairyman keeps a record of this kind he will find at the end of the year that some of his cows have done very well and paid handsomely, while others have 1 been a dead loss; and the natural inference is that if all our cows were as good as the best ones there would lie a tremendous improvement in general results. Of course, the inquiry naturally arises: What are we to do with the inferior animals? Apart altogether from the legal rfr moral aspect 01 the matter, there will be considerable difficulty in disposing of an inferior ow. She probably cost as much as a good one to buy, but if sent to the market on being ' drafted out the possible buyers immediately suspect that there must be something wrong when a dairy farmer wants to >ell an apparently good and sound cow and .ilfer a price accordingly. It is all very well to say that a farmer slioual test his cows and get rid of the inferior ones, but what is he to do with such? Fattening oil' is suggested, but a eow in calf does not suit this, and it you wait I till she calves again she is in milk, ready to begin the cycle once more. The best ! outcome of this testing will be in development by breeding. If we use a bull from approved milking stock, and save thee aires only from the best mothers, then, in course of time, the iieneral cpiality of our cows would be improved.

I'NPROFITABLR I).\TT!Y COWS. Some authorities have estimated that :W or 40 per cent of the cows in New Zealand are not worth their feed. This ean be readily proved by statistics from the report of the Department of Agriculture, which shows that during the year there were 300,10Gewt of butter exported and IOO.OOOcwt cheese, while we had 317.720 cows used soiely for dairy purposes. i{ we allow 217,720 eows to supply the local wants—which should ho ample, considering that it means a cow to every family of four—it will tliu« be seen that the' cows only average from 1301b to 1401b of .butter, which means even at the high price of butter less than £0 a year for each cow. As there are ,i number of herds that return £8 to £lO a year, -Hicre must be n very large number, indeed, being milked that are utterly worthless.