FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 133, 3 July 1909, Page 6

FARM AND DAIRY

LIME AND MILK. I AN INTEItbriTUiU I'^CTa .vri.iu" of the interesting exp'eri.,,,*lu fiiiicu out in Taranaki under the iiirocii-u of Mr. J. Montgomery Hat- 1 rick ut the l'otash Syndicate, to de- , moui'ti-iti- the value for milk-production ~, , bas.c slag and potassic top-dressing, Mr I'iinirose McConnell, the eminent Vn'»li-n a-'iiculiuial authority, makes an°inien-.i.n« observation. It will be I remembered chat Mr Hattr.ick's test showed that there was a distinctrise! in t l le butter-tat content of the milk when Ihe cows were pastured on the treated pastures, inferring to this interestno fact, Mr.' McCounell says: "No one has vi't been able to find that food ,uuld' lie made to permanently improve Hie iimil'tv of the milk, no matter flow ■■eh tVn'food is,'but the influence of soil scorns to be something different. i'iic «'■ ur has elsewhere pointed out i\,u ai'riaus geological fact that milk from a limestone country is always richti .11 lat than any other; the putnn" ui ;iuie on the soil (as is' done in b-i-°c ..lag) may have the same effect, but win- it is so 1 cannot explain. The lesson tor the dairy farmer is to slag his pastures, and if these are on light soil to add potash salts'." ~.,,, The lime theory may be all right, Mil' ! had not the effect of the slag, in encouraging the growth of the bettei .rrasses and thereby providing more nutritive feed, more to do with the better quality milk than the beneficial effect of the lime, or, rather, was not tw combination of all three rcsponsiblethe phosphoric acid, potaesie salt, ant the lime'! In this connection it has i'lie remembered that the improved pas ture did not probably increase thi natural butter-fat content; it mereU enabled the cow to manufacture lie: normal milk, which the poor untrcatei. .- pasture would not—Wellington Tim<*