THE DAIRY SEASON

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7110, 23 April 1910, Page 16

THE DAIRY SEASON

A REMARKABLE AUTUMN. The autumn, of 1910 will probably rant as the most favourable ever experienced in this island. Taranaki it specially fortunate at the present time, the luxuriance of the pastures being tho admiration of visitors to the great grazing province. • The milk flow in consequence is* being maintained at a very satisfactory level, quit© unexpected in view of the oarlv character of the season and the check milking stock received by the dry weather in midsummer. Much tho same favoured conditions exist in the Manawatu. Tho ten creameries of the Fresh Food and Ice Company are receiving 10,000 gallons of cream more per day than at the corresponding date of last season. There is little doubt that much of this satisfactory result is due to tho use of maize, this fin© fodder for milking stock being grown widely at the present time. A case came under the writer’s notice the other day where a man with fifteen cows secured a daily increase of ten gallons of milk on putting his cows on to the succulent maize. This is a typical case. Now that the nights are cool, fewer complaints are being made of the quality of the milk being delivered at the factories. Though the farmer is too apt to neglect precautionary measures for the future when the trouble is over, many Taranaki dairymen have been taught a bitter lesson -this season in regard to their failure to cool their night's milk and to observe the cleanliness they should in handling it. The country press of tho province is full of correspondence over tho vital question of the unsatisfactory milk supply, in which the milking machine is figuring prominently. One correspondent puts it correctly when he says that some men will have dirty milk whether they milk by machine or hand. There is a general tendency among users of machines to leave too much to tho mechanical milker, apart altogether from their failure to keep the machine thoroughly clean.