FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 176, 4 November 1910, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

BEST DAIRY COW THE WORLD EVER SAW. It remained for the Missouri College of Agriculture at Columbia, U.S.A., to raise and develop the champion dairy cow of the world. Missouri Chief Josephine, a llolstein Friesian cow, finished a six months' test on July IS, producing 17,fll)8.81bs. an average of 03.41bs of milk daily for 182 days. This is equivalent to 40.7 quarts, or 1-I.G gallons, every day. Her highest record for one day was 110.21b5. This record is the more remarkable because no special preparation had been made for the test, and Josephine has done her full dn fcy in the regular dairy herd of the university, having had five calves in five and a-half vears.

Not only has this record smashed all previous world's records for milk production, but the percentage of butter-fat is increasing daily, so that, barrinj accidents, this cow will undoubtedly produce more butter during a period of twelve months than any other cow that has ever been tested in the world. This cow is but one of a number of remarkable cows owned by the University of Missouri and maintained solely for the instruction of its students in agriculture and for investigational purposes. Only twenty Jersey cows in the history of the world have produced more than 700 pounds of butter in one year. Five of these cows, or 25 per cent, of the total number, are owned and were bred by this Missouri institution. The college owns more than 300 purebred and registered animals, belonging to seventeen distinct breeds.

Josephine's record exceeds the present world's record for s.x months bv 1458 lbs.

Some good milking averages are being obtained by Mr Playle, of Kakararnea, from his herd of 82 cows. Of late thev have average! about 2!)001bs of milk daily, equai to nearly 301bs per head. As the herd includes 30 per cent, of heifers milking their first season, this result is considered very good indeed, and shows that Mr. Playle's herd has been carefully selected. * As they are milked by machinery, it will be seen that the milk yield has not suffered by the adoption.—Patea Press. A consignment of New South Wales bacon. (50 sides and a like number of middles) has been landed hi London. The butchers and the curing operations are pronounced to be good and very suitable for the English market. Tara-n-riii farmers take notice.

The Holstein-Shorthorn cow owned byMr. W. Saywcll, which topped the list in the Wairarapa butter competition, last season gave 12,4021b of milk, from which was taken 43SIb of butter-fat. At Is a pound that worked out at a £2l 10s return for the season.

A sheepbreeder of Victoria made an extraordinary discovery when mustering. He found a merino sheep on a small flat on the top of a mountain. The sheep has an extraordinary staple of wool, and from the earmark is thirteen years old. It has never been shorn. The wool is 21in in length, and of exceptionally good quality. This is probably the longest staple of wool ever obtained in Australia.

In the Alpine regions of the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Valais cheese-mak-ers will keep their products for years. They assert that cheese improves* with age. At Les Ormonts, in the canton of Vaud, it is customary to make special cheeses for certain family feasts. They are tagged with explanatory labels, and eaten several years later, another feasts. or even at funerals. Often such cheeses are bequeathed from one generation to another as family souvenirs. Recently, at Les Ormonts, in a concealed shelter, there was discovered a cheese dating from 1785. It was as hard as a rock, and'had to be cut with a saw. It is reported to have tasted "good." A corn peculiar to the horse consists of an injury to the sensitive horn of the foot and the soft tissues beneath, causing at the same time a rupture of the small blood vessels. The escaped blood works through the horn of the sole, staining 'it a dark red color. The location of a corn is on the sole in the angle formed by the bar and wall of the hoof. The front feet are most usually affected, because they support about* two-thirds of the weight of the body, and also during movement, the heels of the front foot is placed upon the ground first. - An American, writing on the foolish ness of the policy of withholding fertilisers till the soil shows signs of exhaustion, sums up thus:—"Some have not the money to spend, and some will not, and the great danger lies in the fact ;that those of the better class will join those of the former aftervfollowing only those methods of easy adoption for a few more years."

We are not alarmists, but we believe in advocating the safe policy—Keep your land and animals in good condition when you can: it is easier to keep them going than to recover lost ground. ° An adult fowl produces, on an average about lOOlbs of dung in the course "of twelve months: that is to say, a coii|,!e of dozen birds produce between them no less than a ton of highly concentrated manure per annum..

Professor E. B. Voorhess has figured it out that a well-fed cow will produce in a year lo7lbs of nitrogen. Slibs of phosphoric acid, and about 871bs of potash. _ At this rate it is easy- to see why dairy cows are such a powerful factor in increasing the fertility of the farm when manure is properly cared for. ' .