THE FARM.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 1106, 12 February 1891, Page 3

THE FARM.

Superiority op Ayrshire Milk. Mr. E. M. Winslow, New York, maintains in a letter to the "Albany Cultivator" that the Ayrshire produces the most desirable milk for table use of all the pedigreed breeds of cattle, being good for either butter or cheese. With the strictly butter breeds, the cream when once separated does not readily mix again with the milk, but with the Ayrshire the cream will be thoroughly mixed by pouring once or twice from one can to another. Then, too, the cream of the Ayrshire is soft, and when again mingled with the milk has the appearance of new milk, while with the purely butter breeds the cream is hard and leathery, and a few moments after mixing the cream will rise in small particles, making the milk appear as though it had been skimmed, and they had failed to take quite all the creani. Another reason why the Aj'rshire milk is more satisfactory, both to retailer and consumer, is that the niiik does not churn into butter during transportation, thereby givingtlie consumer the benefit of the full value of the milk, and the retailer the reputation of an honest milkman and not skimming his milk before selling. Still another reason why Ayrshire milk excels is because the cream rises slowly, enabling the retailer to sell a uniform quality to all, and when used on the table being of uniform quality until all is used, and retaining a rich look to the last. Still another reason why Ayrshire milk is popular is that it does not sour quickly, which for tabic use is very essential ; but perhaps the most important quality of Ayrshire milk is its value for food ; being highly nutritious, and so uniformly balanced, it is more easily digested than the milk of any thoroughbred cows, which makes it a valuable food for invalids and children. Agricultural Notes.

More fanners and gardeners are unsuccessful by reason of attempting to cultivate more land than their capital aud experience can properly manage than from any other cause. Instances of marked success in agricultural pursuits are mainly in connection with limited areas cultivated in the most intelligent and effective manner. Many farmers own too much land for the quick capital at their command for cultivating and stacking their broad acres. Who ever heard of .tuberculosis, abortion and glanders, fifty or sixty years ago among stock ? All the*e diseases and many others are with us to-duy, and thej' will not be rooted out until we pay more attention to drainage of land and the purity of the water and the food which we supply. The keeping quality of butter may he determined with tolerable accuracy (says the "Jersey Bulletin") by putting a sample in a wide-mouthed bottle or a fruit j\r, and boil it in a water bath for an hour, remove it carefully, and examineif a cloudy sediment has formed beneath the butter. If so, the butter contains too much cheese and sugar, and will not keep well. It is a poorly-made butter. How many farms are brought up to their fullest capacity of production ? Not many. What would be thought of the manufacturer who failed to produce all that his factories could afford him, letting his capital lie idle and his resources yearly slip through his fingers, simply for the lack of faith to prepare himself with the necessary tools and labour to carry it on? He would justly be looked upon with derision, and it would take no prophet to forecast his future. So with the merchant who fails to take advantage of his opportunities. But still, year after year, the fanning world jogs on its accustomed road, with its timeworn ruts, regardless of the many changes taking place outside it, letting slip many opportunities for ! advancement, simply because they have not faith enough in their business to warrant any outlay of I time or money.

The last two seasons have been the most trying the fanner tm experienced in New Zealand, the long, continued drought and the low prices reducing his income to a minimum. The want of rain and the scorching winds during the present season have been disastrous to the grain crop. Feed in many cases is exceedingly scarce, and farmers have had to turn their stock into the paddocks of oats and wheat. The yield from all kinds of cereals will be much below the average.

Copenhagen butter factors have warned Danish butter-makers to withhold information from New Zealand, since that colony would eventually prove their most formidable competitor in the world's buttermarket. And yet some miserable specimens of humanity say that it is a country on the verge of bankruptcy, aid that the development of its resources is a invth. This paragraph should show these funereal grmnblers that the colony lias got a grand future before it, and that other countries are beginning to realise that they see in us a trade eoemy worthy of their steel.