Farm and Dairy.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 504, 17 January 1906, Page 2

Farm and Dairy.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

[Ale Rights Reserved.]

CARE OF THE DAIRY COW, THE oow has a different system of converting her food into human food from that of her relative; the beef steer, The steer oonverts his food into fat and plaoes it in layers just under the skin and between the muscular fibres of his body, storing it up to be used as fuel if need be, or to be sold as beef when his oaroase goeß to'markot. The dairy oow will eat heartily of the food given her, but not to create fat to store upon her own body, but to oreate milk for the maintenance of her oalf, Food given her at night will be digested and converted into milk ready for the youngster's breakfast. By her process of assimilation, Bhe oonverts oheap forage into a highly nutritious human food, muoh cheaper than the beef steer, The oondition of the dairy oow is such—by her system being so relaxed by the annual production of a oalf, and further by the daily drain

upon her for milk—that she must be oared for as to best withstand the ohanges of weather, To be most profitable and yield .••■', wholesome milk, she mußt be comfortably housed and oared for as muoh as possible, for on her comfort depends, in a large TJ measure, the owner's profit. The stall -£P should be kept - olean and well bedded so as J to keep her clean. She should have plenty of fresh water, and never ioe oold in winter time, or she will take some of her butter fat to heat it with. One must remember that the oow takes rough feeds and transforms them into a palatable finished produot, so that one should Bee that she haß plenty of raw material with which to do the wozk. She must be ted and watered regularly, so that she will not waste time v and energy worrying when her next feed will oome, She should always be treated with kindness. Whenever the attendant is in a swearing mood he is not a fit companion for the dairy oow, and he should go away until he is in a better humour. Before calving her food should be somewhat reduced in quantity, and of a cooling, laxative nature, suoh as roots, silage, and lucerne hay. Shredded corn fodder is exoellent for roughage. Oats, bran, or a little oilmeal are good. After oalving only tepid water should be given for at least two days; keep her in a dry, warm boxed stall, and see that she does not get a sudden chill for several days; and then one should watoh the feeding when on full feed, and know of a oertainty that he is feeding all his oow will stand.

MORSES ; SPRAINED TENDOJIS. Sprained tendons or ligaments are always serious, no matter how slight they may at first appear to be, and there is no other clasß of injury that is so consistently maltreated. In no oase should embrocation be rubbed into a part newly sprained, or when an exostosis—i.e., any protuberanoe of a" bone that is not natural—is forming. In a oase of sprain the objeot that should be kept in view in the first stage is to keep down inflammation and prevent exudation and swelling, and embrooations, instead of tending in this direotion, add fuel to fire. In the early stage the treatment includes rest, and rest in its truest sense, and not turning out into a scanty pastures, to be tormented with flies, and oompelled to walk about for two-thirds of the twenty four hours in order to obtain a bare subsistence. Yet strange to say this seems to be a great

many people's idea of rest for a lame As a further aid, apply a shoe lessen the strain on the injured part, and consequently make the rest more complete. If the injury is quite reoent oold applications are beet, but if there is muoh swelling and congestion, it will be better to use warm water with opium, belladonna, or some other anodyne added. When the inflammatory stage is passed is the time ' ' '■■ for the much-abused embrooatton, and at that period is perhaps better than blistering, beoause it is milder and of greater in its action. Above all, a long rest is absolutely necessary, as if put to work before the cure is complete, there is a liability to a repetition of the injury, whioh may very possibly result in either incurable lameness, or a case of oontraoted tendons. Tn the aooompanying sketch the usual positions of strained tendons is Bhown by the arrow. CYCLAMEN FROJH SEED.

The present is an exoellent time for sowing seeds of these charming plants, and a packet of mixed seed will furnish a wealth of bloom next season, About the best method of cultivation is as follows: —Sow the seed in well drained pans of soil composed of one-half fibrous loam, broken small, and one-half sifted leaf mould, with the addition of sufficient silver sand to make the soil feel ' grittj ' when being handled. Place the seeds singly about two inohes apart and oover them with about one eigth of an inoh of soil; stand the seed pan on a damp bed of ashes in a moderately-heated frame or house with a temperature of 50deg. at night, keeping the soil fairly moist throughout. Early in Maroh the young plants should be potted oS singly into two and a half inoh pots; but this must not be done until the plants have made one or two true

leaves. For this potting the soil should be the same as that reoommended above. The pots should be well drained, and the plants lifted out of the Beed bed very oarefully with all their roots intact, as these being btittle are highly susooptible to injury. The corns should be almost, but not quite buried, and the soil only made firm enough to retain the plant in position. At this stage the bast plaoe for the plants will be on an ash bed in a slightly Bhaded house, , and near enough to the glass to prevent them from becoming drawn. Give the plants a temperature of about 55ieg. at night, and frequently dew them over with tepid water during the day; this will keep the plants And their surroundings fresh *nd olean. Do not negleot watering at any time, for dryness at the roots will ruin the f plants. The plants may remain here untiLearly in June, when they ma y be movoer 0 into their flowering pots. DAIRY NOTES, At this season there is no greater trouble to the average dairymaid than a thundery atmosphere, and unless great precautions are taken it will Boon find its way to the dairy, Then the milk goes sour in every pan, whether it has been set a long or short time. Perhaps the evening's milk is found a mass of ourds and whey in the morning, and fit only for the hog-tub, Thundery air appears to act upon milk in a similar manner to that of rennet or vinegar. The remedies are not .many, nor are they in all oases reliable. If the milk oan be kept oold enough it will not turn. But the great diffioulty is to get a dairy cold enough. A whitewashed roof, properly used ventilators, properly' Bhaded windows, a north aspeot, and a oold stream of water passing continually through the apartment will all tend to make the place Cool, ■.'... ... - ' ; ';'. !