FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 15 June 1907, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

t AUSTRALIAN DAIRYING. 3 A well-known authority on dairying, I Mr Ilopo-Jolinston. secretary of the WavI erley Dairy Company, lias just returned from a visit to Australia. He saw much I to interest him l«ith ill Victoria and New { Soth Wales. Dairying ill the Conimonj wealth, he remarked to the writer, is i conducted oil a larger scale than with us. One New South Wales factory lias paid out for cream in one month 110 less than £30,000, and a factory just erected at Casino cost no less than £10,009. One weakness of Australian dairying was the rapidity with which home separation was driving out the whole milk system. Pasteurisation was also extending, as a necessary corrective. While the industry, says Mr Johnson, is showing rapid expansion, factory work ■ not being conducted on such n good principle as in this country. The system of grading in vogue is not so exact or as effective as ours, but efforts are being made to place it 011 a more satisfactory footing When in Melbourne, Mr Johnston attended a dairy conference, lie found much to interest him in the proceedings, as well as considerable amusement. 111 discussing the better prices realised by New Zealand butter over Australian on the Lonodn market, one speaker contended that it was due to more butter-fat being in New Zealand butter. Two instances were mentioned which give some idea of factory conditions in Victoria. A factory manager explained that one "reason why it was difficult to calculate the over-run was that "mouldy" cream, which would not churn, interfered with an exact estimate .Mouldy cream! A Government instinct or declared that at one factory he recently visited the milk pump had not been cleaned for a year! There are bright sides to the picture, however. Special classes are annually held at Melbourne University for factory managers and assistants in both dairy chemistry and dairy bacteriology.—Times.

PICKING OUT A COW. There are certain homely signs which are helpful to a man who sets out to find ft cow for his dairy. Some of these are us follow: The cow ought to be of fairly good size, So that she can eat a good ration. She should have a large udder and good-sized teats. Some hold that the milk vein should be large and crooked The cow should have a thin neck and a slender tail. She should be wide between the hind legs. She should have a good honest look in the eyes. She should stand handling well. When milked she should enjoy a good hand at it. A couple of rudimentary teats behind the four fully developed ones are a good indication.

This matter of picking out a good cow has proven so unsatisfactory to a great many men that they have come to the conclusion that they can better afford to

raise their own cows from calfhood than to trust their judgment to select them from herds. There is a satisfaction about this that goes a long way. If the heifer should fail to turn out well we cannot blame anyone but ourselves; whereas, if we trust the man we buy from and then our expectations are not realised, we arc inclined to find fault.

It really is more of a job to pick out a good farmer than a good eow. So many men think when they sell a cow that she is the very best of all In the lot, when the fact is they are, for the time being, sadly mistaken.

SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK. The general principle of heredity is ■flat "like produces like." There arc departures from this rule, but it proves true in the majority of instances and it should be remembered that bad points arid qualities arc as likely to be transmitted and reproduced as the reverse. It is a serious, but common, error in breeding to suppose that the bad points of one point animjil can be fully offset or overcome by the good points of the other mate. The true principle of successful breeding is to couple two animals that are each as nearly perfect as possible.

Errors iu conformation are not to be offset by choosing a mate that is abnormally developed in the contrary direction.

l»y mating with an animal perfect in the point where the other is imperfect there is a greater likelihood of success.

SELECTING A DAIRY HERD. The young farmer is constantly asking himself if it will pay him to invest his money in a dairy. No outsider can tell for certain whether it will or not, for so much in every business depends on the man himself. But, one thing is sure there is no method of farming that pays better to the well-posted farmer than the dairy. The young man who intends to be a dairyman, and especially if he is in moderate circumstances, must depend for success very much upon his own wits and judgment, lie must know, or wi'l soon learn, that his success will depend in a great measure upon the quality of the cows he keeps. He must either buy them or raise them, and we all know that no one will sell his best cows except at long prices, while the raising them takes more time. Hut time is something the young man has more, of than money, while he also needs experience. There is no greater mistake than to buy up.a large herd before you learn how to handle the cows. Vor this reason it is far better to go slowly, and raise all your tows.

(jet your herd and your experience at the same time. By raising all the heifer calve*, you will get many large milkers that can I>*» used in your own herd or wild at a good profit to oilier dairymen. So lon;.' as the bull produces a fair majority of pood heifers, keep him in service, but \i in your opinion ho proves a failure, as some of them do. then do not get discouraged, but buy another. Always hav a thoroughbred animal and from u thoroughbred dam Unit lias a record tor line production of milk and butter.

LICENSING BULLS. A writer in the .Michigan Farmer advocates the licensing of bulls. This is the way he icasuns on tli»» question: "it a license fee of 5 dollars .11) or iO dollars (2) per year was required lor each sire in use. it would, 1 believe, work much improvement in the dairy stock of the- country. The owner of a scrub bull would not pay the fee. and his animal would in consequence be debarred from service. The owner of a good bull, on the oth-T hand, could well alTord t'» lake out a license for his animal, as Te- would no hiager have to meet the competition of cheap scrub bulls, and. in my opinio :, the stock of a community would show sueli seady improvement that the plan, when once given a thorough trial, won; 1; lind general favor." Thorough and skilful cultivation will, in cold weather, help to preserve tiewarmth in the soil, and in a hoi seis.m it will help to cheek the too-rapid <-v;,; \ tinji of the small amount of moiiorc thai there may be in the soils during such periods. [ The eow tint n'-v; half-wild on a short dry pasture will rarely give more milk . than just sufficient to fear her calf.