FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 178, 20 August 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

The cows should be kept clean, and not allowed to wade in mud or filth. This calls for clea«i yards, and clean, well-bedded stalls. Unless cows arc healthy and vigorous they cannot prove profitable; generally under other conditions they will prove a dead loss. We can secure more profit by feeding skim-milk to pigs' under 1001b in weight than we can after they have passed that weight. No subject connected with the management of eows is of more vital importance to the dairyman than the prevention of disease in his herds. Great care should be taken in feeding ensilage, as in many eases too much is fed. and it will cause the milk and cream to take the odor therefrom. Change of weather, harsh treatment, and fright upset the milk yield, and the animals will often give down less milk to a stranger than to the regular handler. It is not so much a question of season of the year in dehorning cattle as it is a condition of the animal and the manner in which the dehorning is done. The weaning of home-bred calves i> more suitable for those who do not lon* the rough-and-tuniole of the market, with its deceptions and its disappointments.

Do not allow ensilage or other feedstuffs to stand in the cow stable, nor any hay to be fed to the cows just before milking, on account of the dus'b that will be raised.

»See that every bearing of the separator is free and uncloirgrd, and oil each before use. The oil should be suitable for machines running at high speed, and not too thick.

A congested udder is the result of a large How in heavy milkers. It is caused by stagnation of Wood in the udder, and the oozing of the blood into the surrounding tissues. The West Coast Refrigerating Works at Pa ton have been overhauled in readiness for the season about to commence. At present only about 100 boxes of butter per week arc being received at the works; cheese Ims not yet started to come in. In the flush of the season it is expected that cheese will average over 1100 cases and butter 500 boxes per day. Addressing the Mangatoki Fanners' Union last week, Captain Young said lie thought farmers would come to dairying all the year round in New Zealand, and especially in Taranaki. His opinion was that it would par the farmers to give it a trial and 7 '■ • :>• or thirty cows in the byre all tin- winter, lie explained how a cow, in tramping about the paddoek looking for grass j n the ivinter, trampled down four blades for every one she ate. and expended energy which if she were comfortably housed "would be devoted to miik-pvodticliou, and she would need less feed. Besides, they could be better looked after. He added that he was 1 quite convinced that the time was not far distant when the factories would be kept going all the. year round, and the milking machines would be of assistance in the matter of labor.

The advent of the butter-buying season is bringing with it the usual rush of buyers, amongst the first of them to .crime along being Mr. fleorge H. Buekeridge (formerly of the linn of Buckoriilge and Wilkinson, of Eltham). Mr, I-.uckeridge lias' recently returned from England, where he lias been actively advocating the sale of Xow Zealand' produce, and he has been able while there to induce a number of the very best retailers to push the sale of Xew Zealand butter and cheese as a pure New Zealand product instead of its' losing its identity by going to the blenders. Mr. Btickeridge has been appointed to represent one. of the largest firms doing business in butter and cheese in Great Britain. Messrs. Henry A. Lane and Co., Ltd. His headquarters during his stay ia Tnranaki will be at Eltham.—Argus. It is the general belief that the purebred boar has' far more influence on the form and quality of the halfbred sow than has the purebred sow on the pigs which she may farrow to a half or crossbred hoar. Tt is desirable in the breeding of purebred stock that the 6ire should be an impressive one, but it is if possible, still more necessary when n'n attempt is being made to breed animals or any defined type or formation from lialfbred dams. As a rule, the sire from a reallv good old-fashioned herd is far more likely to be, impressive than one from a recently-formed herd, however successful the owner may be in winning prizes at the various shows'. The mere winning of prizes is a comparatively easy task, if capital enough is employed; whilst the number of breeders of any narticnlar variety of stock who possess the perseverance and {he ability to continue for a lengthened period the breeding of uniformly good animals' of a distinct type is very limited. It may ne taken for granted that the majority of successful pig-breeders pay far more attention to the form and quality of the hoar than of the sow with which lie is mated: one reason for this is because it is more within the means of mnst persons to purchase one boar than several purebi'"d sows.