DAIRY NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8050, 6 November 1906, Page 1

DAIRY NOTES.

We read of all sorts of devices to cure kicking cows. Like balky burs , kicking cows are usually made so by the men who handle thein. The best device we have ever seen is to put a riDg in the floor over head aud with a a halter on the cow draw her head up pretty taut. She canuot kick very well in this position aud the beauty of it is she does not kuow what ii is that prevents her as she soon comes to know if a strap is buckled about her legs. —lixchiinge. A bulletin from the Wisconsin Station states that a cow is at her best duriog her fifth and sixth years, up to which time the production of milk and butter-fat by cows in normal condition increases each year. The leDgth of time the cow will maintain her maximum production depends ou her constitution. In connection with the rumour current amongst people interested in the dairy industry, that purchases of cheese have been made in New Zealand by or on account of a shipping company, for the purpose of providing freight for its steamers, the managing agents of Mew Zealand of the Federal, Houlder and Shire linee, state that outside of the freight the steamers of these lines or their owners are not interested, either directly or indirectly, in any pur. chases of dairy produce in the colony. The following are American recipes for keeping flies off cows. Probably there flies are a greater trouble to cows than here, but even here these pests affect the milk yield : prof. H. H. Dean of the Ontario Agricultural College, recommends: Fish oil, one balf-galloa j coal-oil, one half-pint j crude carbolio acid, four tablespoonfuls ; mixed, and applied to all parts of the cow, except the udder, once a week, will keep the flies from about twenty-five cows. Kansas State Agricultural College recommends the following mixture : Resin, l^lbs; laundry soap, two cakes; fish oil, one half-pint; enough water to make three gallons. Dissolve the resin in a solution of soap and water by heating, add the fish oil and the rest of the water; apply with a brusb. One half-pint of this is considered enough for oue application for a cow. At first it will perhaps be necessary to give two or three applications per week, until the outer ends of the hair become coated with resin. After that retouch the parts where thd resin is rubbed off. Still another preparation tba 1 . has been recommended is: Fi h til, one gallon ; crude carbolic acu 1 , two tablespoonfuls.

Apoplexy Among Lamb9.—Mr J. A. Gilruth, the Chief Veterinarian, when lecturing at Feilding recently, said that when lambs were about six weeks old they began to eat grass; this in addition to a large supply of milk, produced too much blood, and caused death by apoplexy. In order to prevent this, the tails should be cut when the lambs were two to three weeks old ; the result of this would be the loss of a certain amount of blood, and it would be wise to leave the tails a little bit long, in case it be found necessary to repeat the operation, should symptoms of apoplexy become apparent. He also pointed out that blood-poisoning was likely to take place if lambs were cut and tailed in dirty yards, especially in those were pigs had been kept. Speaking of lo;k-jaw in young lambs, he said this was caused by a microbe picked up from the soil by wounds caused at birth, and recommended the burial of the animal and keeping the soil clean as a prevention.