Winter Feed.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2919, 8 June 1888, Page 3

Winter Feed.

(Canterbury Times)

Ggieriinicnt are doing a sensible thfflg in introducing to tlio Colony an expert of known ability to instruct our fanning population in the science of the dairy. It is a noteworthy fact that, although in the English market there is an adverse difference ol about 85 per cent in the price ot wheat of to-day and thai of 20 years ago, 22 per cent in the price of oats, 11 per cent in the price of meat, and 40 per in the price or wool, there has been a wondei'fcUviso in the price of dairy produce,fact the trade in the latter commodities lias undergone a remarbable development and improvement. There is more of this class of fi : ' produce raised in Great Britain to-day than there ever lias been in the country's history ; and yet, strange to say, the amount imported is also increasing aiiditwill continue annually to increase with the natural increase of population, With such a soil and such a climate as ours, New Zealand ought to be no mean competitor in the great markets of Britain, to which every producing coimtry under the sun looks for the difpsal of its superfluous food. It was to educate our fanning population up to the highest, point yet reached the" mount ofknowledgo" in dairying that the Agent-General was asked to seek out an able expert, and send him out to New Zealand, consigned to Sir Harry Atkinson and Co. When the consignment of "dairy expert" arrives let us hope it will be found in good order and condition, and if not over, at least up to, recommendation. He will be expected to teach

ill a plain understandable .way, and / especially by ocular demonstration, jLcvei'y" wrinkle" in the production of butter and cheese that lias been acquired during the twenty years' development of the trade just referred to, which " wrinkles" have not yet found their way to our shores, or luive not become extensively known if they have arrived, He will be expected so to disseminate practical knowledge that the possibility of failure in the production of good butter and good clijste! will be reduced to its very lowst minimum. llis advent, if we are not expecting too mueli from his influence, will be calculated to give a lillip to the establishment of creamerics and butter factories; and we may learn, too, in our larger towns to cultivate a taste for skimmed milk—a taste that immigrants from Home to these shores appear to have wholly forgotten. Yelhovv many of the labouring population of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland consume large quantities of this wholesome article of 'diet along with their farinaceous food V-aye, and buttermilk, too, galore ? V Yes, an able teacher, specially imported by Government, may do much to improve and develop into a most important and lucrative industry dairy farming in New Zealand, And we have 110 hesitation whatever in saying that the first fault he will find with our system will be our want of attention on far too many of our farms, to growing of winter feeil. A couple of paddocks of pasture, not always yielding a bite for the cows; and a few acres of turnips, not always a successful crop, but very frequently a failure—represent the average provision made by the New Zealand farmer for the feed of his cattle during the winter. True, up till now, the season lias been kindly indeed, and there is fair growth in the pastures, but iu many parts of Canterbury there is a shortage of turnips, A severe " cold snap' may soon be expected; for, three weeks more, and we shall

have crossed the equator of the season, and passed the shortest Then there will be experienced annoying scarcity of cow feed. Why should this be? Why should any farmer in a country with our soil and climate find himself scarce of feed in the winter? In no land under the sun can so great a variety of green crops be grown; yet in 110 country does the average farnler restrict himself to so few, Yen hear but little along the stretch of Canterbury plains of taping with rye, vetches, or rape, with a view to Uie winter; and the production of leguminous crops for the same object is almost wholly neglected. On how few farms, also, can silos bo pointed to; yet ensilage is one of the grandest facts of the nineteenth century. Hundreds of tons of rich feed go annually to waste in this colony that ought to occupy a place in tlio silo, whether built or stack, that should be 011 every farm. If silage were more attended to than it is, farmers would be able to snap their fingers at the winter, and carry 011 through it with as heavy a stock of milchcs as they had in summer, and with their dairies flowing with milk in an undiminished stream.