The Dairy on the State Farm.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 4

The Dairy on the State Farm.

Referring to his visit to the State Farm Dairy at Levin, the travelling correspondent of the "New Zealand Dairyman" writes:

1 wish every dairy farmer and factory supplier would pay a visit to the State Farm Dairy. It would be time and money well spent; for it is the best planned and best kept, and by a long way the cleanest, that I have ever seen. Of course, it will be said that it well might be, as the Gove nment found the money. But many farmers have spent large sums on their sheds, and the result is far from satisfactory. There is nothing strikingly new about the design, nor anything very striking about the apparent cost. Wlfiit is striking is its perfect suitableness for the use for which it is intended, and its extreme cleanliness. " (.heap State Farm Labour," the reader will chip in here; but the reader will be wrong again. The secret lies in its sound concrete floor and the water supply being arranged so: that the floor can be flushed each time it is used: the concrete drains catch all the washings, which flow into a pit, from which the manure is easily taken to the fields. The walls are well whitewashed, and sawdust is scattered on the floor before the cows come in to be milked. The shed is wide enough for two rows of bails; and a wide pasage runs from end to end. The great bugbear of New Zealand dairying, “mud,” is kept at bay at the threshold, and the work of' milking is cleanly and expeditiously done by two families who live on the farm. Tiie milkers are all girls and women.

One hundred cows are milked in the flush of the season, and the cream is sent to Wellington for disposal. It is only fair to the manager, Mr Walker, that I should say my visit was quite a surprise one, and that I only saw the dairy in its normal, every-day condition. Mr Mackay, of the Labour Department, can justly take credit for this branch of the farm, despite the sneers of political scoffers, be they the wrong “colour" or the right.

Another feature of the farm is the styes. These are arranged in rows and consist of three apartments. The feeding side is kept for that purpose only; and when the feed is furnished the pigs are shut out of that compartment, and either pass into the sleeping pen, or pass through that to the opposite side of the stye, where they can bask in the sun on a perfectly dry and clean floor; and this result is easilv . secured by feeding always on the one •'side of the pens only, and dividing the 'pens as stated above.