220 ■ Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



REPORT OF THE BACTERIOLOGIST AND SCIENTIFIC 

 INSTRUCTOR IN DAIRYING. 



T. Cherry, M.D., M.S. 



In reviewing the work of the past year, the most important 

 circumstance has been the drought, which has affected the whole 

 State and brought dairying in the JMortliern districts almost to a 

 standstill. In consequence of these unusual conditions I thought it 

 best to devote most of my lectures to the question of fodder for the 

 dairy herd. In explaining the fundamental principles of food and 

 feeding, the main point is to insist on the all important distinction 

 between the flesh forming and heat producing constituents of the food. 

 Under ordinary circumstances the latter, represented chiefly by sugar 

 in its various forms, can be abundantly raised on every farm, but with 

 the flesh formers the case is entirely different. The value of grain 

 and its products, of peas and tares as green fodder, and above all of 

 lucerne cannot be too much insisted on. In Europe and Ameiica the 

 supply is largely supplemented by a variety of concentrated food- 

 stuffs, but with us these are not used to any great extent, and con- 

 sequently the practice of raising crops rich in nitrogen on the farm, 

 to help out the natural grasses, must be looked upon as a most 

 important step towards placing dairying on a permanent footing. 

 Efforts have also been made to induce the northern farmers to preserve 

 and cultivate the saltbushes, another most valuable plant in dry 

 districts. 



Another fact, which the drought has brought home in a way never 

 before realised, is the necessity for a certain amount of succulent food 

 in the daily ration of the cow. Too often the fundamental differences 

 in the digestive system and requirements of the cow and the horse have 

 been overlooked. By systematic growing of fodder crops, the necessary 

 green food can be raised in all the Southern districts, but where the 

 rainfall is deficient, the easiest and most satisfactory method is by 

 means of silage. Unfortunately the early attempts at making silage 

 in Victoria have not been too successful and many farmers who have 

 tried it have given it up. The conditions necessary to insure uniform 

 success have been worked out in America during the past ten years, 

 and the modern overground silo is the result. Briefly, the most 

 important point is found to be the complete exclusion of the air, and 

 this can best be secured by passing the gree'n crop through the chaff 

 cutter or similar machine before filling it into the silo. Besides using 

 a model of such a silo to illustrate my lectures, the Department has 

 had one capable of holding 65 tons erected at the Royal Agricultural 

 Show, and it is satisfactory to note that several farmers have already 

 had similar silos built, and speak of the quality of the silage 

 in the highest terms. A number of analyses of samples of such 

 ensilage are now being carried out at the laboratory of the Chemist 

 for Agriculture. 



