FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 171, 12 August 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

DAIRY FACTORY PROFITS. QUESTIONABLE METHODS. j The disparity in profits between factories manufacturing butter and those manufacturing cheese has led to very questionable tactics/ on the part of some of the former to make their returns for butter-fat as high as possible (says the Wellington Times), We refer to the reading down of the test, and thereby making the price per pound of butterfat returned the supplier relatively higher should be. Of course, it will he argrted that it matters little taking a point or two ofV each supplier's test, if all are treated alike, for the suppliers get all there is in the busbies*. The obvious reply is that the dairy factories are conducted by public companies which are in duty bound to control the business-in a fair and legitimate manncr. More than this, faking of the tests puts the business of co-operative butter manufacture in - a very unsatisfactory position, as it does not permit of suppliers knowing if their business is being conducted on economical lines, as thereby no fair comparison can he made with the work- of other factories; it also leaves the door open for abuse* to creep in which enable defective work—unnecessary losses owing to careless or extravagant methods—to be covered up. The faking of tests in butter factories, especially where these are being conducted in the same district as cheese factories, is well enough known to those in the business, but confirmation of it is contained in the address of the chairman of the Normanby Company at the recent annual meeting. The chairman, Mr. W. Goodland, said: "Some othe» companies were paying out more; in one case he knew of a company that was paying out more than it actually received. The company referred to had sold the butter for less than was paid to suppliers for butter-fat. ' And the only way they could do that was by keeping the test down. Normanby «-inpliers had-been paid on a fair The company could easily have paid out lo%d if they had instructed the manager to keep the tests down." The position suggests the need of independent testing officials,'who could be employed by a string of factories, not only for testing the milk supplied, but for testing the residual products, in order to afford a proper check on the system of manufacture. Such officials might also be employed a & testing officers of co-operative herd-testing associations. The idea of independent testing officers wciv once mooted in TaraI naki, hut some managers objected so 'strongly that the project was dropped.

A large, coarse sponge is the best thing to wash a cow's udder. The sponge should be washed every day in a disinfectant and thoroughly aired.

The stables should be well ventilated! and <'mined, using plenty of bedding. Sawdust or land' plaster will readily absorb liquid manure. The South American freezing works exported to the United Kingdom 271.508 tone,. Australia 37.,-W" tons, and New Zealand 1A4;2<4 tons fvoy,cn meat last year.

lf the amount of milk that passes through the separator in a given time is increased, the skimming will not he so perfect, for tin l centrifugal force is not exerted on the milk so long a time. According to statements made recently by leading American manufacturers, the farmer would not have to buy more than one-half of his present stock of machinery if lie took proper care of it. A farmer on the liimutakas has already a crop of this season's potatoes to dig. This, together with the wattle trees in bloom, is a good sign of an early spring (says the Wuiranipa Age). Phosphoric acid is found in every part of plants, but accumulates more especially in the seed. .It is also the principal constituent in the bone formation of man and animals, „ml where it is wanting hi the soil, plants grow feebly and animal- do not thrive. * "

Xo horse can be kept in good condition if ii lie infertcd with worms, and all horses are liable to be thus troubled at .some time, both colts and older horses. These worms line the intestinal trad and sap the energy liberated bv the ford eaten, so that no amount of good care and feeding will lleshen a wormy horse.

Education, and particularly scientific education, as applied i 0 the'treatment of the soil, growing of oals and fodder crops. a nd the care of animals; cannot be too strongly insisted upon as an essential in the make-up of the successful farmer. The aim of every progressive agriculturist should be to push such education along. A keynote of succor in connection with dairy-farming was struck by the chairman of the Xorniun.bv Co-operative Dairy Company (Mr. W.'floodland) in the course of remarks made at the annual meeting a few days ago. He said it was not his business how niauy bad cows some of the suppliers hail, but •some „f tii,,m milked cows' that robbed them every day. lie knew he milked -ome himself, as he hail not a fancy herd, but his returns showed au average of 2401b of bntter-fat per cow, against the average of 1841b for the whole of the cows that supplied the factorv. ISrieflv. Mr. (loo.lland's herd of 54 cow's returned about .tin Ids per cow for butter-fat. against the average return of (he total number of cows from which milk was supplied to the factorv of ja llawera Star.

'I lie Queensland hnrvrvt for the past season ~roved imnh more satisfactory than its predecessor, though it fell considerably shorl, both in average ami yield, of tile returns of l<m:| and 11)04. The statistics prepared 1 )V the (iovernnienl, show that the yield' w<is Mim.oiio bushels from SO,!)()!> acres, <u- an average yield of 14.87 bushels per acre. 'Pile quantity rciijied was more than half a million bushels more than the preeodiiiir year, though the area was 13(H) acres less. It may lie added tliat Queensland is'still lamentably short in the production of foodstull's for home consumption. Hie aiiiiual requirement in wheat bein.f n.non.ooo bushels.

.Socialists in France, as well as in England, are opponents of small proprietary lioliliims, and some of Hit-in have vecenily declared that the land of tin- jn'asaut proprietors was Ileitis swallowed up ill large estiit.es, and that the rural proletariat was inerei-'r ■ .isothat tlm small holdings weiv 'wurse cultivated than 'large farms. Jn disproof of tlies,. statements, M. fimiu, IV Minister for Agriculture, lias given tin. results of an incjiiiry inlo (lie sulijcet imide liv tile Departmental Professors of Agriculture. These slow lli-.it out of eiif}rt\ Ff veil deni. L vcnts ll i concentration of lauded proper;v has taken place in onlv two (lining l;„. [;,»(. Iwenlv years, wliilc ill sixtv-liv l I," number of small holdings lias incr s* i: that in ihe majority of departments th. l cultivation of small holdings is supeiinr to that of the large estates; und that the lo(- of the rural laborers has steadily improved, many of them having become peasant proprietors.