8 Feb., 1907.] A Milk-Producing District. 99 



of ten, one such cow means 10 per cent, loss on the yearly o]^)erations, and 

 no farm can stand this. It is like paying a bank voluntarily 10 per cent, 

 on the total capital invested in. cows. 



In the case of those who are engaged in the sale of butter or cream, 

 the difference between each cow^ with regard to the quality of their milk 

 has more particularly to be attended to, and when this can so easily and 

 satisfactorily be done by the use of a Baboock milk-tester, at an outlay 

 of less than 30s., it seems strange to find that farmers are so slow to take 

 advantage of this little machine, which has done so much towards increas- 

 ing dairymen's profits in every progressive dairying country. Some allow 

 themselves to be deterred from the purchase of this testing apparatus 

 through a groundless fear of its possible complications ; but the fact is 

 that anv one with sense enough to run a separator will find no difificulty 

 whatever in proving each cow's capability as a butter producer by this 

 means. Among those farmers who are using the separator may be men- 

 tioned three who have succeeded in putting together herds of about twenty 

 head that in both appearance and results are much superior to other herds 

 of similar size in their districts, viz. : — Messrs. F. B. Lithgow, of Cold- 

 stream, R. Hill, of Lilvdale, and G. Feidler, of Crovdon. There are 

 also occasionally met others with smaller lots of verv nice stock that are 

 a credit to their owners, and an object lesson to the neighboiurhood. 



Prevailing Cattle Diseases. 



Having been a cattle raising district for very manv years, it is not to 

 be expected that the Lilydale Shire has been altogether free from disease ; 

 tuberculosis, contagious abortion, and pleiiro-pneumonia have each caused 

 loss on some farms. It is claimed that owing to the Shire inspection and 

 the perhaps harsh but effective practice that has been followed of sum- 

 marily destroying all animals suspected of tuberculosis, this disease is less 

 frequently met with. 



Following on the advance of scientific knowledge of stock diseases and 

 its distribution among those most interested, contagious abortion is getting 

 to be better understood, and its chances of causing extended losses are 

 being reduced. As regards the primary cause of outbreaks of this disease, 

 it is significant that one farm that has suffered considerably in this respect 

 is the one that is exceptionably noticeable for the rough driving of cattle 

 to the shed, which matter the owner appears to treat as of little import. 



Pleuro has broken out in this district intermittently throughout a period 

 of over thirty years past. The most recent reappearance of the disease 

 occurred about twelve months since, and it has not vet been completely 

 controlled. During this period some fifty head of cattle ha\e been 

 destroyed on one farm, and .some half-dozen head on each of two adjacent 

 holdings. The mortality on the former might conceivably have been much 

 less had more reasonable precautions been exercised. The disease was con- 

 fined to the milking herd and its grazing area, and these animals alone 

 were inoculated. Subsequently newly-calved cows were repeatedly brought 

 into the herd without having been inoculated, and these invariably con- 

 tracted the disease. When a new milking shed was erected on clean 

 ground for the fresh cows the trouble ceased. On the two other farms 

 every beast on the place was inoculated as soon as the disease showed 

 itself, and it was thereby confined to those that had contracted it pre- 

 viously. Byi the quarantining of the affected paddocks and herds the 

 Stock Department has so far succeeded in preventing the spread of the 



