10 April. 191S. | TIw Advantages of Herd Testing. 203 



This is one of the best grasses for rough country, and though at its best 

 ill a warm climate with a good rainfall, yet even in the coldest situations 

 in the Gippsland hills it forms a good sole of pasture, and the close graz- 

 ing that stock subject it to shows how they like it. As it makes but little 

 growth during its first season, it appears somewhat slow to establish 

 itself, but every plant that takes hold is there to stop. It has a long- 

 seeding season, the heads not all ripening at once, and hanging from long 

 stems they swing round Avitli the Avind scattering the seed well over the 

 surrounding ground, and thus the number of plants quickly increases 

 unless grazed very closely. It should be noted, however, that it is not 

 advisable to sow paspalum in paddocks which later may be required 

 for cultivation, as it requires heavy discing to get it out of land where 

 it has become established. 



In several of the paddocks on the flats near the river there is a 

 splendid sole of strawberry clover, one paddock of 18 acres being parti- 

 cularly good. On river-flat land there is probably no fodder plant 

 superior to the strawberry clover. In some places it has been found 

 to completely overrun established lucerne crops, so that the lucerne disap- 

 peared, and it is doubtful whether the milk-producing capacity of such 

 land was at all reduced in consequence. 



The farm steading on Myrtlevale is particularly well constructed 

 and cleanly kept — poultry yards, piggery, bull paddocks, and dairy build- 

 ings all have their respective positions, and there is none of the " On Our 

 Selection " jumble of stock that is all too frequently in evidence on many 

 dairy farms. From the hang of the road gate to the neat flower garden 

 round the dwelling everything points to system and order, and appearance 

 alone give* the place the stamp of a profitable dairy farm. 



Referring again to the subject of this article, only those engaged 

 in the work understand how difficult it is to get some farmers to change 

 from their haphazard unsystematic methods of dairying. Although the 

 use of the scales and the Babcock tester is a far simpler process than 

 sharpening an axe on a grindstone, still it is almost impossible to per- 

 suade some cow-keepers to take up this, the only sure method of selecting 

 dairy stock. Some years ago the writer saw a cow being milked that 

 was giving a fair flow of almost colourless milk. A sample taken showed 

 a butter-fat test of .o per cent., which means that it would take twenty 

 gallons of such milk to produce one pound of butter fat. In this instance 

 the owner's curiosity was roused to the point of testing that cow's milk 

 by setting it in a dish, and failing to get any cream from it he promptly 

 slaughtered the animal. As the cow was old, and had been on the farm 

 all her life, the owner must have lost the price of several good cows 

 through having grazed and milked this animal so many years, while she 

 was yielding milk only fit for pig feeding. Possibly, also, she left some 

 progeny which may now be in some non-testing dairyman's herd. 



It is an indisputable fact that all over the State there are people 

 working Avith low-yielding and low-testing cows year after year, when by 

 testing, culling, and breeding on right lines, every cow they own might as 

 easily be profitable producers. Dairying, when properly conducted, is 

 one of the best paying branches of farming, and those who do not find 

 it so are certainly not working on right lines. The use of the scales 

 and tester is the secret of profitalili' dairying-. 



