FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 May 1922, Page 11

FARM AND DAIRY.

CANADIAN DAIRYING. AND LAND SETTLEMENT. COMPULSORY HERD TESTING. FOR CITY MILK SUPPLY. Rapid strides have been made of recent years in connection wibh the dairying industry in Canada generally, and in British Columbia, in particular, was the opinion expressed by Mr. E. W. Paitson, of Vancouver Island, who was recently in Auckland. “I think we get more out of the cow over there,” he. said. “But that is a matter of opinion, and I will not comment on that phase until I see more of this country. But there is one thing in Brtish Columbia we have made up our minds about —we do not keep ‘boarders.’ You will know the term.” It is the intention of Air. Paitson to visit the various dairying districts in the Dominon. He has been so pleased wtih what he ha-s already seen that in all probability he will settle in this country.

AN UP-TO-DATE METHOD. There is one system, according to Mr. Paitson, that the New Zealand dairyman supplying milk to the cities should adopt. It *ifi the glass bottle system instead of cans. For the past two years it has been compulsory that all herds for city supply should be tested by Government supervision. The milk was diepatched in individual bottles containing pints or quarts as the case might be. “It is a cleaner and better method, and I think you would do well to adopt it here,” he remarked. By this means tubercular bacillus was prevented from being carried and spreading infection. Cow testing has been recognised as a necessary measure, and the Government had been given every support in connection with its educational campaigns. Testing associations had been formed in various localities. “W e 'have come to the conculsion that it is absolutely necessary to test cows, otherwise one is keeping ‘boarders.’ The campaigns have been most successful. At the Government Agricultural College in my district. about almost every breed from beef up is kept, and the various milking and other tests are followed with much interest.

THE FAVORITE BREEDS. “.Jerseys and Holsteins are the most favored breeds in British Columbia. The Jersey is the most economical for production. The Holstein, as you call her —we call her the black and white- —is, of course, a much bigger cow. She requires more food. The Jersey can go anywhere, whereas the Holstein is generally to be found on the low lands. The Jersey is also the most economical for butter-fat, but when it comes to the question of milk for the cities, the black and white is the most favored.” Dairying is carried out all along the Pacific Coast. There is also a certain amount of fattening going on at the same time. Fruit farming is also an important factor in the life of the community, but. of course, lumbering is the biggest industry in that part of Canada.

CALF CLUBS. «We cannot sell bulls over there unless they have prepotency and production behind them,” continued Mr. Paitaon. “You cannot sell them otherwise, unless of course at grade prices.” Much had been done by the farmers through the British Columbia Cattle Club to encourage calf clubs among boys. Each boy is supplied with a purebred calf to rear, where formerly only grade cattle were kept. The campaign for purebred cattle was meeting with much success, and the Cattle Club had been unable to supply all the demands made upon it. Calves had to be imported from Eastern Canada and other parts.

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER. He mentioned that a good deal of New Zealand butter was imported at different parts of the year. Just before •he left a large consignment had arrived. “It is very good, only the farmers do not like it, which is quite natural under the circumstances, as it under-sells the local production by about 2|d per lb.” Unfortunately the local farmers did not supply enough butter for home consumption. * The New Zealand article was dispatched all over Canada and the United States, and enjoyed an excellent reputation. All the dairy farmers had their silos, filled with maize, oats, peas, vetches, and in certain places sunflowers were also included, more particularly in the prairie provinces. The sunflower idea had not been popular until the last two years, but now was coming into favor. Sunflowers were strong, and would grow where corn would not. It was, in addition, a very heavy yielder. These silos gave sufficient food when the ground was frozen hard, and the stock housed indoors. The housing of stock was an expense that the New Zealand farmer had not to contend with. Conditions were very different in the two countries. It was quite impossible to make comparisons. In New Zealand the farmer worked for eight or nine months and then turned his cows out. In British Columbia milking was continued all the year round.

LAND PRICES. Referring to prices prevailing for land, Mr. Paitson said the very best could be purchased from £5O to £6O an acre. There were two grades, as in most countries. The moratorium was now out of existence, and consequently made a difference in the disposal of properties. In common with New Zealand and other countries, the province had been passing through a period of financial depression. There had ’been a severe drop in prices. “I think we were harder hit than you were here, but we are picking up again a little now,” remarked Mr. Paitson. “No country can prosper if the fanner does not prosper.” SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. Brief reference was made by the visitors to soldier land settlement. He expressed the opinion that the New Zealand Government had been very liberal, more liberal than the Canadian authorities, in its treatment of returned men. The majority of soldier settlers in Canada had done well on the whole, with the exception of a few, who would never have made good, as they were not suited for the life. A hard winter had weeded the men out, and those who had withstood it were the men who were going to make good as settlers.

FARM TRAINING. EDUCATION AND EXPERIMENT. In considering economies in the Department of Agriculture, the Board of Agriculture at its last meeting was of opinion that educational and instructional work was of particular value at the present time, and that no curtailment of this should take place. During the discussion on rural education, it was agreed that inquiries should be made with regard to the various legacies that have been bequeathed for ■the purpose of encouraging agricultural education. It was further decided that the time had arrived when the preliminary steps should be taken towards the establishment of one or more farm schools, and that sketch plans should be prepared for the buildings necessary for a school of fifty pupils, and submitted, together with the estimate of the cost, to the board at a future meeting. The •board also considered it desirable to foster as much ns possible the formation of boys’ agricultural clubs, and thought that the initiatory steps in the matter should be taken by the farmers in the districts themselves. The Director-General of Agriculture promised that his officers would continue to give every assistance and encouragement to the movement.

The board also considered the policy to be adopted with regard to the experimental farms and the .methode of working them, also the question of retaining some that appear to have served the purpose for which they were originally established. The Director-General of Agriculture gave particulars of the arrangements that were already in hand in this connection. As regards the Moa Seed Farm, the board was informed that a committee had offered to take this over on very fair and reasonable terms and run it as a seed farm for a term of live years, with a view to demonstrating what could be done in the way of up-to-date seed growing. The following motion was agreed to: “That the board hears with satisfaction that the public-spirited offer of the committee to take over the Moa Seed Farm for five years is likely to be accepted by the Government. The board is convinced that it is of the utmost importance to the future of farming in New Zealand that farmers sow the highest grade of pure seeds, and this seed farm in a district which is eminently suited for the growth of seed is likely to foster their use ”

THE BEEF MARKET. The dullness of the beef market in London is illustrated by the experience of a small farmer in the Wellington district (says the Dominion). He sent Home a small line of beef, obtaining an advance which just covered the cost of killing, freezing and shipping the meat to London. The returns show that after paying the selling charges he is in debt to the extent of £5. The farmer would have been better off probably had he given the cattle away. Beef from Denmark and chilled beef from the Argentine are in excess supply, and the latter are said to be losing from 20s to 30s per quarter on shipments. The cattle countries cannot stand this loss much longer, and must turn to something else. Will they go in for dairying? This is a question that is causing some people some hard thinking. The butchers are getting beef at 20s per 1001 b wholesale, or less than 2id per lb, but the retail prices are still high, especially in the suburbs. MONEY FROM GRASS. A Southland farmer has reason to thank the slump for a piece of good fortune. Caught in the grin of falling prices, he was forced to watch the seizure of every hoof of stock upon his farm, but instead of following the example of many others and letting the farm be sold up also, he hung on in the hope that the Government would come to his assistance, and as he waited the grass grew on his stockless farm. He paid no heed to this till his attention was drawn to the fact that the grass seed might be marketable, and he began to make investigations, with the result that he found that the whole of his land, prior to bis purchase, had been sown in fescue, which had recently risen in value from 6d to Is 4d per lb. In haste, with the help of his neighbors’ teams and implements, he harvested his crop, and from the sale of the seed obtained the handsome return of £4OOO. With £3OOO he purchased the freehold of his land, and had £lOOO left for stocking purposes.

LARGE AND SMALL COWS. The records of cows entered in a recent competition that were sorted according to live weight and breed, says an English paper, show that while large cows do consume more feed than small cows, the amount of feed consumed per pound of live weight of the same animals is greater in the case of the small cows than with the large ones. Although the larger cows consumed less food in proportion to size than the smaller ones, they produced milk, total solids and butter-fat with greater economy of feed. While the economy of production does not increase uniformly with greater size of cows, there is a significant increase in economy when all the classes of cows within each breed are considered. In milk production those cows in the heaviest class of Friesians returned 29.21 b more milk for each 100 feed units than did the cows in the lightest class. Similarly, the heaviest cows of the Jersey breed were also much more efficient, returning 211 b more milk per 100 feed units than the lightest class of the cows of that breed. In production of total solids, a like relation holds true, there being a difference in economy of production in favor of the heaviest .cows over the smallest to the extent of 3.431 b for the Friesians, .831 b and 3.021 b for the Jerseys. In butter-fat production, there was, of course, a much smaller numerical difference, but a relationship similar to that of the two instances just mentioned. The largest cows produced 1.041 b more butter-fat than the smallest cows of their respective breed, while the largest Jerseys produced I.OG more. The daughters of the pedigree Jersey bull Holly Bank Squire, who put up such a fine performance at the recent New Plymouth Show, are doing equally well in the dairy. Mr. F. W. Corpwall has 21 females by this sire; sixteen of them are being milked this season, and they have gained the distinction of being the best herd each month in the Bell Block Testing Association, the last factory test being 6.6. One two-year-old heifer has milked up to 431 b a day, and 41 days after calving she had given 12001 b of milk, with a 4.9 test and 80.361 b of fat; this was in November, while for the 30-day period ended on April 10 she produced 5701 b of milk, with a 7.9 test and 45.031 b of fat; her record since calving (191 days) is 336.411 b of fat, and she is still milking well. The individual tests of 16 heifers taken on April 10 were as follows: 7.3, 5.5, 7.7, 5.8. 6.0, 7.6, 6.2, 5.6, 6.2, 7.9, 6.9, 7.3, 6.8, 6.9, 5.5, 6.5, or an average of G. 6. The selection of the

bull Brampton Merry Boy, which Mr. Cornwall imported a season or so ago, has proved a wise one, the result of the mating with these heifers being a very fine lot of youngsters. Brompton Merry Boy, it is interesting to note, is closely related to Fauvic’s Prince, sire of Fauvic’s Star, the world’s champion cow.