ON DAIRY FARMING,

BY W. K. lIULKK, ESQ.

No. 12.— A MILK RECORD.

A great help to those dairy fanners who arc building up a herd by brooding their own cows is a milk record, and all desirous of having deep milkers or good butter cows should immediately set one up. In England, America, and Holland a few dairy farmers have kept them for years, and so largely recognised is the value of the information obtained frem a well kept record that National Associations have been organised in England, America, and several of the continental countries to establish them on some general basis, for the improvement of tho dairy cow, it being an acknowledged fact that fully 25 per cent, of the cows in the best dairy districts are unprofitable, and do not pay for the food consumed in proportion to the return made by a better animal. On recording the dairy production of each cow, the dairyman can measure the value of each cow by her day's milk, tell at a glance any change in her yield, whether it comes from sickness, neglect, accident, bad food, or change of pasture ; then, like a skilful physician, having acquired a knowledge of the ailment, proceed, without hesitation, to prescribe for it. The record, to be useful, must be one adopted universally by all Associations. It should have a fixed standard for all breeds of dairy cows in lbs. of milk per day, and lbs. of butter per week orcheese day year. Above everything, it must be true. A record, caielessly kept, is, in fact, no record. The time spent in keeping it is lost, and instead of being a sure guide to its owner, helps to confuse him by the inaccuracy of its records. " A record need not absorb much time or trouble; a gauged pail or steelyard, a memorandum book, and a cedar pencil, and two or three hours monthly, are all that is necessary to enable you to know exactly the merits or demerits of every animal in your herd, and I have kept such a record nearly thirty years, and I believe it has been simply invaluable to me," said Mr. Tisdall at the annual general meeting of the British Dairy Farmers Association, 4th October, 1877. The enormously increased demand for fresh milk in the large centres of population in England, coupled with facility of railway transit, is rapidly changing the character of farming in many counties — less corn is grown and more milk is produced, as the coat of transit is cheap. In 1870, there was no milk sent to London from Derby, now there is thirty tons daily ; and other counties send in like proportions. The large Railway Companies, competing for its carriage, the North Midland charge £d. per 20 miles ; $d. for 40 miles ; above 40 to BOmilos, Id. ; 110 miles, nil. London and North Western : 100 miles, If d. Great Western: 100 miles, lid.; 150 miles, l£d. The Midland takes freights from 6d. to Is. ; London and North Western not under Is., thus giving all classes of dairymen an opportunity of disposing of their produce in the best market — dairy farmers receive about 7|d* per gallon nett. In New York, U.S., 250 delegates from Orange, Sullivan, and Sussex Counties, representing the dairy interest, met on the Gth January, 1880, and represented that the farmers would be glad to accent two, three, and four cents a quart for each four months of the year ; whilst others preferred two and a-half and three and a-half cents per quart for each six months of the year. Prom these prices it will be seen that those dairy farmers in New Plymouth who sell their own produce retail must possess a gold mine in a good herd of dairy com. Milk is selling for 8 cents, or four pence per quart, summer and winter, their cows, as a rule, receiving but scanty extra food during the winter months ; whilst in a less favoured clime cattle have to bo housed and liberally fed, at a heavy cost, if milk is required. Prom Auckland and Southern papers to hand this month I notice that several hundred kegs of salt butter wore sold for 2.Yd. per lb., good butter (salt) realising lOd. to Is. per lb. in tho same market. Surely this ought to 1 teach the makers of such rubbish the necessity of greater care in the manufacture, as well as greater cleanliness in the dairy. It at the same time shows that the present system of education in the country districts is defective, in so much as it omits all agricultural instruction, a knowledge of which is absolutely necessary to the majority of the children attending country schools. In Ireland this is now being provided for by the Educational Commissioners in the establishment of dairy schools, in which females are admitted, and who go through a course of instruction in all matters relating to the dairy, and the demand for

admission is, the Commission report, enormous. If agricultural instruction is deemed so necessary as to demand the attention of the Irish Educational Commissioners, how is it that no provision has been made by the New Zealand Government for the instruction of the children of the country settler in that particular branch of industry, one in which their future lives will most probably be spent ? The sooner this is remedied the better. Having now fully exhausted the subject, I propose finishing my letters on Dairy Farming in the next, which will be "Best site for a dairy, and its construction."