DAIRY FARMING.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1267, 12 August 1880, Page 3

DAIRY FARMING.

Daisy farming is one of the most stable sources of wealth a country can possess. It does not exhaust the soil like graingrowing, but rather improves it by converting many of its products into manure ; and the markets for dairy produce are not so liable to be over supplied as those for the products of the sheep farm ; for while the produce of the dairy takes an important place in the necessaries of life, the production is comparatively limited. Although the greater proportion of the land in this part of the colony is better adapted for arable purposes and for sheep farming than for dairy fanning 1 , yet there is a considerable extent of country suit* able for that purpose, and the climate is also favorable. The home consumption of dairy produce mutt necessarily increase -with population, "and the neighboring colonies will be capable of absorbing all our surplus butter and cheese. It is true Australia has immense tracts of country available for cattle - grazing, but the climate is too hot for dairy farming, and this gives our dairymen a great advantage as regards this class of produce. Unfortunately, there are a great many caies where this advantage is not followed up, and owing to defective management of the dairy, the average quality of the butter and cheese produced here is not altogether a credit to the country. The production of an inferior class of dairy produce may chiefly be attributable to two causes ; the want of attention, and the want of knowledge. The absence of attention and cleanliness in connection with a dairy is readily betrayed by the character of the butter, milk, aud cream. Being very susceptible to the faintest trace of dirt anil in-otlours, when the management of the daily is not all that it should be, the produce is inferior in quality, and a low price is the result. The milch cow is an animal very capable of improvement. The profits of the dairy increase in proportion to the attention she receives, aud her produce may be nearly doubled by proper treatment. Some cowkeepers hold the erroneous opinion that the extra time aud labour required in attending to apparent trifles will not be compensated by a proportionate increase either in quality or quantity of the produce. But that cannot justly be called a trifle whioh adds to the profit of an animal kept expressly for that purpose. The gains of a young tradesman, says a modern writer, are found in the " odds and ends ;" his remnants are the parts of his stock-in-trade which are to remunerate him for his time and trouble. What remnants are to the tradesman, cows, pigs, poukry, are to the farmer. It is wefl-kuown that pigs and poultry are profitable or the reverse according to the method of keeping them ; but cows, under indiffeent management are profitable, and few will deny but that they may be made more so by proper treatment, L The dairy farmer is not so much interested in high breeding aa the grazier ; yet he should not by any means be indifferent in the matter, for his aim ought to be to obtain a breed that when no longer profitable as milk-givers the cows may be fattened, or sold to be fattened for the butcher. It ia a difficult matter to obtain a breed of milch cows that are valuable as milkers and also have a disposition to fatten when required. But these two qualifications may be attained, and have been attained, especially among the improved shorthorn breeds. When butter or cheese ia the principal oljiect, Buch cows should always be chosen as are known to afford the best milk and cream, and in the largest quantity, of whatever breed they may be. But the weight of butter to be made from a given number of cows must always depend on a variety of contingent circumstances, such as the size and goodness of the beast, the kind and quantity of the food, and the length of time since calving. It is scarcely necessary to mention that a large cow will, as a rule, give more milk than one of smaller size, though cows of equal size may differ as to the quantity of cream produced from the milk of each It is therefore on these cows whose milk is not only in great abundance, but which from a peculiar inherent richness yields a thick cream that the dairy farmer is to place bis chjef dependant*, and.

where a cow is deficient in either- of these qualities she should be parted with and her place supplied by one more proper for this use. In the Old Country it is considered a great saving to keep the dairy cows in open or covered yards, according to the season, and the green fodder, roots, &c, are conveyed to them. When cattle are kept in this way half the land will maintain them that is necessary when allowed ,to pasture themselves, and the cows in general produce nearly double the quantity of milk and butter, and much more manure is made. Dairy farming has made much progress in America since the formation of societies and associations for the acquirement and diffusion of information in all matters connected with the dairy. Professor Arnold has written a very useful little work on American dairying, in whioh he shows a very complete knowledge of his subjeot, both from a practical and scientific point of view. In the preface of '-this work he says that individuals may work in positions so isolated as to fail quickly catching any progressive steps their fellows may make, and that to make much progress men must work socially, so as to learn of each other. It was not, he says, until associated dairying came into vogue, and the numerous associations for mutual instruction and investigation were established, that the practice of dairyfarming in America was brought to its present state of coinpletness. There are — and have been for many years—numerous societies in Great Baitain for enoouf iging and forwarding agriculture in all its branches ; but it is only a few years since the inaugaration of the British Dairy Farmers' Association for advancing the cause of dairy farmers, and for enabling them, by binding together for mutual improvement, to compete successfully with the imported article. The society also by making the details of this industry better understood and more snbject to well defined rules in matters connected with the dairy such as tht temperature most favorable for the raising of cream, the depth of the cooling-pans, the time of skimming, the time ana manner of churning, and the comparative advantage of churning the whole yield of milk or cream only, all of which are , disputed questions. The time has come for the dairy farmers of this country to improve their position by some such association as the above. By means of the freezing pro ess an opening is made for the disposal of our surplus butter. A number of our dairymen, by clubbing together, should be able to export a large bulk of this article of a superior and uniform quality, which would be appreciated by the London^ consumers, and add to the credit and profits of the producers. There is *o reason why this should not be practicable through good management and combined effort, the principal obstacle being the apathy generally shown by farmers respecting any new project for promoting the welfare of the agricultural community.