“THE HERD TESTER."

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1929, Page 14

“THE HERD TESTER."

(Original.) Just think of the life of a tester, Using oil and acid and steam. Wakened at four on a wintry morn In the midst of a corking dream. Then over the paddock, into a shed, As dark as a Berkshire boar. To milk old Spot, who must’nt test low, Or you’ll hear the cockie roar. Sliding along on a greasy floor, Last cleaned on a far off day. Falling o’er tins and buckets and stools That persistently get in your way. I’ve heard of the shed, so dark it was,

They couldn’t tell Rose from Liz, Till Dad came along with “feci her, my lad, To see what colour she is.”

Of course there are sheds with leaking roofs,

And sheds withoiit a floor. Sheds that have shed all they can shed, Till they are sheds no more. I’ve been in sheds quite up-to-date, With floors as white as snow, But I hate the shed, that was surely built About a thousand years ago.

Now we come to the man who cannot believe, That testing is sure to pay. As a cow is a cow, he buys all the “duds,” From his friends, who are over the way. If their test goes up, and his goes down, My very last shilling I’ll bet, That he thinks the factory’s beating him, . ’ ' And the manager's got him set.

This is the man we shouhi pity most, For our help we dare not offer, Lest he should laugh right in our face Then sneer, the senseless scoffer. ’Tis a waste of time to try to explain To a man who’s made of wood, How to double his fat, and also his cheque By testing, and breeding good.

I know of a man who picked a cow, As the “best one on the job.” Till the Babcock told a different tale! Now she’s missing from that mob. But what is the use of worrying, While there’s milk and money and mud; If everyone tested as they should, Who * the dickens would buy the “dud?”

—J. MICKELSON. Eltham, December 22, 1929.