FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 228, 1 February 1911, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

MARCH OF A BUTTER RIVAL. HOME FIRM'S OPINION. A letter handed to a representative some time ago by a buyer for a London firm of butter merchants includes statements which give an idea of the growth of the dairy produce industry in one of our rival countries. The firm from whom the letter emanated docs a big trade in Siberian butter, and last winter predicted a prosperous season for the producers of the big Asiatic country. Their views were criticised, and the communication from which extracts are 'hereunder to be quoted substantiation of the aforementioned predictions is the chief object. It was claimed for a start with the sceptical critics had negatived their own estimation of the Siberian season by the "circulation of a report emanating from themselves tliat the exports of Siberian butter this year '(1010) will exceed those of 1909 by 50 per cent." Subsequently the following passage occurs in the letter: —"Since the first part of January up till the end of April last 191,437 casks of Siberian butter passed lvoirgan Station, Baltic bound, and these figures represent an increase of. 73,013 casks, equal to 02 per cent, more than for the same period of last year. So early in the year such a high tide in Siberian supplies must be without parallel in the history of Siberian butter. Siberia mny, therefore, dominate the position right away, and exercise an irresistible influence over other markets by sheer weight of prolific abundance."

THE IMPORTANCE OF TESTING INDIVIDUAL COWS. ' The importance of testing every cow in a herd and keeping only tlie best is strikingly illustrated by an example culled from the journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria. A imember .of the staff has been at some trouble compiling the returns from a number of dairymen ia that State. The table shows that some farmers made exactly double the amount of money per cow that others in the list arc able to do,. The extraordinary difference of 100 per ccht. is a complete staggerer, and it at once brings home to every man who milks cows for a living the importance of at once commencing to set his house in order. Even a sense of mortification at being so frightfully beaten at the business ought to hj« sufficient to rouse at any rate tlia younger men to exert themselves to remove this disgrace from themselvpjj. for such atrocious bad management is a decided disgrace to everyone connected with the management of" the farms that have made the lower records. It is on a par with a runner who can only compete in a race if he gets 50 yards in every 100. Tnere is, besides, the frightful financial penalty. Fancy a man fining himself £7OO per annum. This is exactly what a farmer Tvould be doing if he ke'pt a herd like that at the bottom of the list as compared with that I at the top, if he were milling 100 cow?.!

NEWS AN]} ,NOTES, . - . >• 'ir 1 "'-' There are about '28,000 co-operative a 2' sociations in Germany, with, more than 4,000,000 members, and these, with their families, represent nearly a third of the tptal German population. A beef steer will stand more cold than a dairy c<W, /or the reason that the fat on the beef steer la under the hide, while on the dairy cow it Is often around the intestines.

The degree of intelligence, in horses varies greatly. The higher tile intelligence, the more a horse is worth for use on the road or in the field, and the mors he is worth for breeding. When purchasing a butter-worker be sure to get one made of hard wood which is not easily roughened by salt or scrubbing. The bed should have just a sufficient slope to allow the water to run off easily. A great point is to have the fluted roller at a sufficient height from the table, so that' the l water may be pressed from the butter without injuring its granular texture. The island kingdom of Japan has but 21,321 square miles of cultivated land to support a population approximating 50,000,000 inhabitants. This is an average of 2277 people to the square mile. The land also supports 2,600,000 head of cattle and horses. This would average no less than 143 people and seven cattle and horses for every 40 acres. Clean over-alls should be provided for the milkers to put on during milking. I Gare should be taken to see that the milkers' hands are perfectly clean before beginning to milk, and provision should be made in the byre for milkers cleuning and drying the hands after milking each, cow.

Some Arms who use heavy horses make an absolute rule that their teams shall not be driven beyond a, walk. The team that can walk fast jvill cover more ground in the course of a day than the team that walks at a slow gait and trots a little to help out, and can do it with less injury.

Nearly every hedge plant imported from Great Britain into Australia has become a pest, and is ruiirifrig wild over large areas. The sweet-briar, lantana, hawthorn, prickly-pear, and many others are included. The blackberry is also a great curse. Of all the pests prickly pear is the worst. It occupies 12,000,000 acres in Queensland and 2,000,000 acres in New South Wales.

It is not generally realised that the striking differences frequently observed in the yields of adjoining fields are sometimes due entirely to the selection of varieties of .seed. An instance of progress throught plant-breeding is found in the yields of rye obtained by the Minnesota Experimental Station* "Beginning" (says the Breeders' Gazette) "14 years ago with a sample of rye of ho extra merit, the process was followed of selecting the hardy plants and carefully eliminating the poor-yielding ones. The rye responded quickly to selection in this way, and now the selected rye withstands winters better than the unimproved stock, and the yeild has been greatly increased. The past season the improved seed yielded 27.2 bushels per acre, as compared with 17.7 bushels from the ordinary rye grown under similar conditions. This method of selection may be easily practised by any farmer with a small seed plot. All of the small grains re- ■ sponded readily to such simple means of improvement.