482 Journal of Agriculture. [8 August, 1907. 



they receive no check from the first. This means that the ewes must be 

 able to supply them with the proper amount of milk, and as in the case 

 of dairy farming this is all a matter of feeding. In many districts we 

 can find instances of farmers regularly hand feeding flocks of several 

 thousand ewes, and I believe that tliis will soon become the regular 

 practice. The details of the experience in feeding silage at Wagga, 

 N.S.W.* shows that it does not cost more than 6d. per month when 

 large numbers have to be handled. Suppose feeding goes on for three 

 months in summer the cost would be is. 6d. per head, aiid there is no 

 doubt tha.t this sum would be recovered several times over in the additional 

 profit on the lamb and the wool. The oat crop may be fed either as 

 chaff or grain. Silage ;may be made of self-sown wheat and wild oats. 

 In districts with a rainfall of more than 20 inches a paddock may be 

 laid down in a mixture of fodders and grazed for three years before 

 breaking it up again. At the farm near Dandenong already referred 

 to the standard mixture is rape, prairie, rye grass and alsyke clover. The 

 former two grow rapidly and furnish the winter fodder ; they are suc- 

 ceeded in the spring bv the r\e grass and clover, Avhich with the prairie 

 form next year's grazing. Some such mixture as this is capable of wide 

 application. One has only to see the results at the Werribee sewage farm 

 to realize the value of superabundant feed for the sheep. In the hilly 

 districts of Gippsland turnips should be grown. Thev form one of the 

 chief supports of the industry in New Zealand. 



Fodder for the Dairy Herd. 



Similar considerations apply to the cow and the pig. The food must 

 be sufficient in quantit}- and contain the right amount of the flesh-forming 

 constituents to give the best results. One crop alone is not suitable. Some 

 such catalogue as oats, peas, beans, maize, and mangolds ought to be 

 provided. Possibly in some districts lucerne and maize alone will do, 

 l;ut variety has many and great advantages. Then again both dry and 

 juicy food are of special importance to the dairy cow. Grazing on or- 

 dinary grass alone a cow will, on the average, eat from 15 to 18 tons of 

 green fodder in the course of the }ear. She ma}- be able to get plenty in 

 November and December, but as soon as the seed is shed the quantity is 

 small and the quality poor. In fact the dry grass, as soon asi the seed 

 shakes out, becomes grass straw instead of grass ha\-. This is the reason 

 why milk production all over Victoria rapidly falls off at the end of the 

 sprmg. If autumn rains are delayed then the financial losses suffered 

 by the farmer are so great that they would ruin any other industry. Take 

 the following characteristic paragraph, which shows that the dairy farmers 

 have lost ^45,000 in a single month as compared with INIay last year: — 



Returns of the arrivals of butter in Melbourne, and of the exports of perishable 

 products, for the month of May show a jxreat decrease in the production of butter. 

 The total quantity of butter received in Melbourne was 827 tons, as compared with 

 1,271 tons for the previous May. The N^orth-Pl'astern district showed the greatest 

 falling ofF, while the West and South-Western district is faring the best. Among 

 the exports for last month were 117,952 lbs. of New South Wales butter and 

 349 lbs. of O'ueensland butter, which was tinned in Victoria and reshipped to 

 Eastern ports and Africa, bringing down the butter of Victorian manufacture 

 exported to 976,856 lbs., or about half the total shipped for May, 1906. The 



* See page 500 of this issue of the Journal. 



