IN THE DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1926, Page 9

IN THE DAIRY.

THE WONDERS OF THE COW. 1 Reliable information is not forthcoming to provide an answer to the question of how long milk and its products have been used. IVe know that the use of milk dates back to antiquity and it is probable that many very early discovered not only that milk itself was good food but that other products such as butter and cheese could be made j from it. We do know’ that the early peoples in certain countries used to I make butter and store it in casks or i other vessels under ground or in manure I heaps or bogs, until it was considered I ready for use. It is also known that in the begin- I ning of the dairying industry there was I very little relation between the care I and feeding of dairy cows and the | methods of intelligent dairymen to-day. i Cows that freshened naturally in the [ spring gathered what sustenance they - could from the grasses and other pasture of the growing season, dried up | in the autumn, and were roughed through the winter on anything that i happened to be available for food. Reliable authorities tell that in the moan- ' tahious districts of Norway, when dairying was just beginning, sows on small farms were wintered on straw, birch | leaves, reindeer moss, and horse dung cooked and given as a mash, mixed with ehaff and leaves: while on large farms the mixture was fed even without | the preparation of cooking. Even as 1 late as the close of the last century it , was a comparatively common practice in certain districts to haul herring in- I land, store them in snowbanks, °and, i during the winter, boil them with horse ' dung and shavings, as feed for sheep • and young cattle. Under such eondi- ! tions of dairying a sing’o hf yield from 24 to 4Slbs of lr: ■’ <’■■■ season, while the annual in: !: pro lection of a good cow would ranee from ’ 1600 to ISOOlbs. MILK—THE UNIVERSAL FOOD. j Undoubtedly the economy of the dairy ' cow has placed her in the forefront of all domestic animals from the standpoint of the production of food. Milk is the most universal of all the human foods. The reason for this is that it is relatively the cheapest, as well as indispensable under conditions of sickness or infancy. People everywhere realise ] that they get more real value from money expended on milk Gian from that expended on any other kind of food. Henry points out that “the fat- c tening ox, when making the substan-" tial gain of 15Ibs weekly, produces in that time 1.131bs of protein or nitrogenous substance, mostly in the form- of water-free lean meat. In the same time

the cow yielding 30lbs of milk daily produces 7.671bs of casein and albumin, or nearly six times as much nitrogenous substance. While the ox is laying on 1 9.531bs of fat, the cow puts 7.351bs of fat into her milk. She also secrets 9.67 ibs of milk sugar, against where there is no equivalent substance produced by the ex. The ox stores 0,221bs of ash, or min-eral-matter, largely in his bones, while the cow puts into her milk 1.571bs of ash, or over six times as much during this time.”