Farm Topics.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 134, 19 April 1900, Page 4

Farm Topics.

Mr Potts/the Victtoian Goveru»fl| ment'a Dairy Expert, leeturingj^B recently in a provincial district, J^B I said :— "I am quoting from^H personal experience when stating'^B that it more than often happensJJM that a man engaged milking roll out of bed in the morning,JM select a dirty pair of pants to wearJH and without washing will go to the |9 milking shed to milk Such a thing Ifl as grooming the cow, or washing ij the udder and teats never enters his |9 head. Cleanly surroundings are IB immaterial, and his first move is to j9 seize the teat, fill his dirty paw with |fl milk, and immediately swab the « teats with it* Presently milking -|M proceeds, and drops of a filthy black IB fluid fall into the bucket, each con- IB taming thousands of putrefactive Ifl germs. These propagate in such aIB suitable food media, and this filthy '^ milker expects our managers to cou-l vert this fluid into sound good keep* J ing butter. s '' The practice of feeding sheep * under cover continues to make'^ steady progress in the south of* Scotland, says the Field, and wellJß it may, if the reports of those who !M hav9 adopted it correctly represent *■ its advantages. According to one -M practical exponent of the custom, W house-fed sheep eat about a third m less food than thosa Outside, andJß put on flesh at the same time far 9 more quickly. Again, we read, ia*-« the written testimony of a farmer \ who fattens 800 lambs in sheds every season, the confident assurancb I that, although he does not advocate^ feeding entirely on artificial food,*** there is no way in which a farmed J can economise the natural food of | the farm — ■ aftermath* cabbages, j turnips and hay —to the same ? extent, or with greatfir profit than \ can be done by feeding sheep trndec ?| cover. The Hon. J, G. Ward, MinisteJ | for Railways, was recently inter* | viewed by Mr R. Meredith, M.H.R.> 4 on the subject of the reduction of jj cornsacks. He pointed out the great J hardships at present suffered by J those who had to handle cornsacks < weighing 17 stone, and requested | : that the Bail way Department should j agree to carry twelve 14 stone sacks, | instead of ten 17 stone sacks, as at I present, Mr Ward regretted thaj want of unanimity on the subject p amongst grain merchants, and.'.* undertook to confer with Mf s3 Ronayne, general manager of thei'Jl railways, and recommend the 3 adoption of the smaller sack. '1