THE FARM.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 41, 24 December 1920, Page 11

THE FARM.

(By "Furrow").

HOW OPTEN MELKED ! It has long heen known that the quantity of milk which cow3 will give, even the quality, is dependent upon the way in which the manner of milking is carried out, says an exchange. Therefore the value of good and quick milkers is obvious. Much has been written about the extra milk which can be obtained by more frequent milking, but it seems from competent judgment that this has been much overrated, not so much as to the amount obtainable as to the feasibility of carrying it out in practice. Indeed, practical results indicafe that milking three times a day only gives six to seven per cent &xtra milk, and this may not pay in many herds, though four times daily may be an improvement with deep milkers, because it is fcund that the milk continuously increases the oftener it is drawn, though there is a limit to this. In some interesting experiments where tliis was put to the test at twelve, six, four and two hours' intervals, the milk drawn ihcreased in about the following proportions, 5£, 6|, 8£, 9|, up to 10 at hourly intervals, but suddenly dropped to 1^ when the interval was curtailed by a quarter of an hour. It seems pretty clear that the more empty the udder is of milk the faster it comes along into the teat, even if it is not manufactured to a large extent durmg the process of milking, which is one theory — for the udder cannot possibly hold it all — and it is believed at the present day that it is made from the blood by tne very delicate machinery of the circulatfion. This may supply a reason for the greater adequacy of frequent milking, and though Nature is very retentive of her secrets in this direction, some knowledge of this kind tends to explain why cows are so suspectible to the manner in which they are milked. The advantages of quick milking are perhaps more easily accounted for by a consideration of these circumstances than are those of more frequent milking, and here there seems to be much more tendency to improved quality than increase in quantity, though this is hardly in accordance with American experience, for Dr Buhcock found quality improved by 10 per cent of butterfat, while only 2 to 13 per cent. increase in the amount of milk drawn was observed. The differences in morning and evening milk are -well known, but as far as quantity is concerned perhaps this is not so common as may be imagined, for the writer recently found the occupier of a farm on which he was living was apparently unaware of this very familiar fact, or his own either. Ths milking was at 10 or 10g hours' day interval, which, of course, is in favour of equal returns night and morning, likewise of equalising the richness. Some East of Scotland trials showed that twelve hours' intarvals reduced the discrepancy to .60 per cent., a mere nothing from a substantial amount. This recalls the suggestion which someone once put forward of milking once a day only by adopting the ingenious plan of advancing and retarumg the two opera. tions by one minute per day nntil the times coincided ! THE COW. AN AMERICAN APPRECTATION. Most potent of all single . influences in the building of this, the mightiest nation in history, is the "cow." Her sons drew the ploughs which first cultivated the land of the new world ; hauled to market the produce of the fields, and with slow • energy moved the chattels and hous,ehold goods beyond the mountains to new homes in the further west. They supplied the beef which is the food of the Anglo-Saxon, n race that was never eonquered since history begafn. They furnished the shoes of the pioneers who trod the unknown wilds, and made of them the farmsteads and cities of our present enlightenment. They gave the clothes and robes to protect the pioneer against the destroying blast of winter, and made commerce possible before the railway was. They covered the chair upon which he sat, filled the mattress upon which he slept, and glued together the fumiture he used. The old cow is the mother of the whole bovine and foster-mother of half the human race. From the roadside weed she manufactures the most nourishing of human foods. She is the ready aid of the farmer, the pet of the rich man and the ever-present help of the poor. She is the economist of the people and the conservator of their resources. She partakes of the grass of the fields, and leaves the farm the richer for her presence.