592 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[8 Oct., 1907. 



If dairying is to hold its present position as being one of tlie chief 

 industries of Victoria, there will have to be more attention given to this 

 important matter of preparing fodder all the year round for the dairy 

 herds. The trouble is always in the summer and winter months; the 

 summer scorches up the pastures, and leaves the grass ^ery scarce, so that 

 when the autumn rains come, and the winter sets in early, it takes the 

 dairy cows all their time to live without being expected to produce milk. 

 This experience has been dearly learnt by the majority of dairymen and 

 owners. It is then that they have begun to realize how the constitutions 

 of the herds become undermined by poverty. If the owners of milking 

 cows have not the welfare of their animals at heart, and do not devote 

 time to discovering their needs, they will never realize that the cow is 

 an animal with peculiarities and feelings that must eventually be consulted, 

 if the owner ever expects to be possessed of a first-class dairy herd. Give 

 your cows abundance to eat and drink all the year round, and the profits 

 will be considerable, besides the pleasing sight of seeing the cows sleek 



RF.SULT OF CAREFUL BREEDING AND FEEDING. 



and healthv. If this is done we would not be sO' continuouslv hearing and 

 reading of, and seeing the different so-called diseases in the various dis- 

 tricts we visit, which in reality are brought about bv no other cause, in 

 many instances, than poverty and starvation. Somehow when things are 

 at their best, as in the spring, and there is a flush of grass, dairymen seem 

 to forget that we are likely to have more dry summers, and that droughts 

 will come again. Therefore, the question at the present time for all 

 dairymen to consider is — What are they going to do with the rush of grass 

 and surplus fodder that they are likely to have? Leave it to be trampled 

 down during summer, or let it go to waste, as they have been accustomed 

 to do, and then repent of their folly during the cold winter months to 

 follow. This mode of procedure would be nothing new, for the very 

 same thing goes on around us every year. It is a mistaken policy to 

 ever allow a heavy milking cow to become low in condition, either when 

 at the pail or at pasture, for if she is not permanently injured as a milker 



