FARMING NOTES.

Patea Mail, Volume XXIX, 13 January 1908, Page 3

FARMING NOTES.

The continued dry weather is affecting the crops in Central Otago. Feed is scarce but tho turnips aro good. One of the heaviest hay crops soon for many years in the Waverley dhiifctrict was that of Mr H. Middleton'w near the uiaiu road at tho racecourse. A Waverley farmer of over 25 years residence reports that this season has boen the best fpr haymaking experienced during tho time of his knowledge here. It is generally reported by fanuoru that lambs liavo not fattened as well 1 this year as last, although large numbers of fat lambs have left and are leaving the district at present. Turnip crops are looking well throughout the district. Ruin will soon bo needed to send them along. One paddock grown right on the edge of the cliffs at the sea beach near Waveiley is looking exceptionally well. It is recorded by the Kaikouia Star that two settlers have had grain crops of twelve and ten acres respectively i' completely ravaged by caterpillars, It is perfectly useless to cut the crops, so thoroughly have tho insects done their destructive work. The JStratford Farmers' Co-operative Association, Limited, will be paying out on the 20th instant, for milk supplied during December, the sum of £7509 15s 6d (a record monthly payment; as against £7191 Ms lid for the same period of last year. Harvesting has started in the

Whenuukura district whore the binders may be soon at work on different farms. The crops promise to be very good, the grain being well filled. Caterpillars have in odo or two crops made their appearance, and have done considerable damage whfove found. What does the food cost tiiat pro= duces a gallon of milk ? For several years past ttie Highland and Agricul. tural Society of Scotland has been testing herds of Ayrshire cattle en bloc for their miking powers—over 7000 cows have been so tested—and the cost of food has beou one of the points investigated. Remarkable . divergencies have been discovered. In the most expensive case the food cost 7.81 pence per gallon ; and in the .cheapest case the cost was only 2.59 d. The average was about 3£d. It was not always the -most expensively fed cows that gave the most or the richest milk, but those which received • medium rations. The complaints of inferior seed seem to be world-wide, says a Sydney paper. The fact that the United States cannot obtain clean lucerne seed suggests a possible outlet for the Australian product, which is of high quality in many districts. IS etc! recently bought in : *Ckio was run up to 3-ls a bushel, but when cleaned down the price was 525. Some Washington investigators found to their dismay that full-priced samples of lucerne seed contained 32,420 noxious weeds seeds per lb, —in other words, nearly half the quantity was foreign. In addition to this f ss, less than 20 per cent was germinable. Ihe estrac' is "from a letter sent, by the Chief Dairy Commissioner for : Western Ontario to the Canadian Dairyman, on the subject of extracting butter fat from whey :—" There is an average loss of -3 per cent of butter fat left in whey when it is ready to ' dip oi- to be run off the curd in cheese making. Instead of allowing this fat to go into the tanks, the whey is run through a cream separator, and the pure butter fat removed in the form of cream before the whey is allowed to pass into the whey tanks.-. Several factories are making butter with success from this fat. About aSO to 60 per cent cream is skimmed, and this is reduced to about 40 per cent by the introduction of a pure culture. When . this cream is churned a very good class of butter is made. Care must be ■ taken that everything is kept perfectly clean and sweet, just the same as in making butter by skimming milk. With a special cream screw there is no trouble, in skimming a rich cream, which churns easily at low tempera- . ture, and, on the basis of -3 per cent loss in whey, about 3lbs or a little over can be made from lOOOibs of ; , whey. In regard to the feeding value of whey, (unless the whey is heated to about 165 decrees, which process will r - keep the fat in the whey) the patrons get very little benefit from this fat as far as the whey is concerned. Most oflt rises to the top of the tank if allowed to go iD, and does not go to the patron at all, unless the whey is short, when this greasy substance is sometimes returned in the cans, to the dissatisfaction of any one who may have to wash them. Again, the fat, if left in the tank becomes a vory hard . problem to the cheesem iker to know to do with. He in cleaning the tank has to have someone draw it away, or else he has to bury it near the factory; in fact it is the chief source of trouble ' in keeping the whey tanks clean. Therefore, if this whey is run through a cream separator and this fat skimmed put and made into butter, it will not injure the whey for feeding purposes ♦ and even if it could all be secured for feeding, it is too expensive to feed at the present prices of butter.