ON THE LAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 25, 29 December 1925, Page 5

ON THE LAND

YIELD OF BUTTER. RETURNS FOR AUCKLAND PROVINCE. BELOW LAST YEAR’S TOTAL. INCREASING CHEESE RETURNS. Returns of butter received during the last few weeks at the Auckland grading stores show that there is little chango in the general position in the province as far as production is concerned. Butter receipts are still keepbelow those for last season. For the two weeks ended on Wednesyad last the butter received for grading totalled 115,919 boxes, compared with 119,067 boxes for the corresponding period of last year, a decrease of 3148. The total receipts of butter from the beginning of the season were 761,825 boxes against 831,663 for the corresponding period, a decrease of 69,838 boxes. Deliveries since the beginning of the season total 697,812 boxes, a decrease of over 100,000 boxes when compared with deliveries for the similar period of last year. A considerable quantity of butter remains on hand, the total being 108,328 boxes compared with 119,019 boxes for the corresponding date in 1924.

Checso is being produced in comparatively greater quantities. During the two weeks, 12,323 crates were received, against 9791 crates for the corresponding two weeks of last year, an increase of 2532. The season’s total to date is 69,753 crates, an increase of 12,711 crates when compared with the total of 57,042 for the corresponding period of last season.

THE PIG AND THE GRASS. A fact that is usually lost sight of in pig-feeding is that the pig is as much a grass-eating animal as the horse or ox, and it is no.t natural to deprive it of this valuable aid to digestion. A small quantity of short-cut hay with the gram food will tend to preserve the animal in robust health, and without its use the best results cannot lie expected. It should always form part of the ration for pigs when grass or green food is not available, it is safe to assume that indiscriminate feeding with food that resists the complete action of the digestive juices is responsible for the terrible scourge of swine fever or cholera, and the fearful mortality that has resulted from its ravages. Feeding with mixed grains is the secret of success in raising the tender well-flavoured alternate streaks of lean and fat in the bacon which meets with the greatest approval, and brings the highest price.

. THE THIRSTY COW. Successful dairy farmers know that it pays to provido plenty of good, clean, cool water for milch cows. Eighty-seven per cent of milk is water, as is also nearly three-fourths of a cow’s body. An American College of Agriculture points out that largo amounts of water are necessary for the production of the milk itseli, and the assimilation of the large quantities of food required is in direct proportion to the amount of milk produced. In the summer a cow will want an amount of water equal to about three times the amount of milk produced. In ono case a cow giving twenty-seven pounds of milk drank seventy-seven pounds of water daily. The same cow drank but fifteen pounds daily -when giving no milk. A cow giving 1001 b of milk daily drank more than 2501 bof water. The amount of water required depends, of course, on the amount of milk the cow is producing, the kind of feed she is receiving, and the weather. However, in all cases it is considered good practice to provide an abundance of good water, fresh and clean, cool in summer, warm in winter.