FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 116, 24 August 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

OVER £l6 PER COW.

The following returns (writes the Dominion's Woodville correspondent) have been handed; in, showing what can be done by carefully studying land culling milking cows. lA farmer on the Napier road, whose land is not considered the best, and who has a restricted area of 44 acres, made the following returns last season:—Twelve cows .returned £l3 ss; pigs> £3 ss; calves, 6s; total, £l6 16s per cow. The capital involved in land is put down at £ 1000, in stock and plant £150; write off a fair amount for depreciation of plant, and it leaves a splendid working wage, with the necessary amount for interest and other charges. This supplied took his milk to a 'butter factory, and on the face of the controversy as to which paid the best—supplying a cheese or butter factory—it is interesting to hear of this farmer's success, which will not easily be beaten by cheese factory suppliers.

BUTTER TESTING.—BABCOCK TEST DISCREDITED.

We do not recommend; the testing of butter for fat iby the Babcoek test (says Professor Farrington in Hoard's Dairyman). The results obtained are inaccurate, because the ibutter-fat is such a large percentage of the butter that all the errors of in sampling, weighing, and measuring must be charged to the butter-fat, and this makes it impossible to get results which can be depended! upon as accurate. It is true that occasionally a test may be made of 'butter that will be very near the correct figures, (but it is also true that the results obtained by the Babcock 1 test may be from one to three per cent. off. The best way to determine what fat is in butter at the creamery is to make a moisture determination and a salt determination of the sample, add these two together, then to the sum add one per cent., which represents approximately, the amount of curd in the-butter, then' substract this sum from 100; the differ- j enee will be very nearly the fat content of the ibutter. The results obtained in this way will be far more nearly thel correct figure than the results obtained! by trying to test the butter with thej 'Babcock test.

The State dairy expert of South Australia, in a lecture on dairying, said that great progress had been made in the industry in other countries, from the assistance afforded by,the Governments. In the United States in 1887 the (Hatch Act had enabled Congress to give £3'oioO to each .State as a maintenance fund for agricultural interests. In 1890, £400„©00 had ibeen voted iby conference, and the individual States had supplemented that by £250,000, while more than £500,000 had been devised by wealthy men iot agricultural and cognate instruction. i