.hiiirniil of A (/nni/fiirr. Victoria. [10 Aug., 1916- 



State, Colonial Office, to move tlie Comnnssioners of Customs and Excise, 

 with the object of securing, in the administrative practice of their 

 Departpient, a working tolerance or margin of safety of 0.5 per cent, 

 on the limiting strength of 30 per cent, in favour of all wines imported 

 in cask, and known to the trade as "dry" wines. These completely 

 fermented and natural "dry" wines are the only types of bulk wines 

 exported from Australia to the Mother Country* 



16. As this matter is one of great importance to the Governments of 

 the States of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western 

 Australia, it is recommended that a copy of this report should be fur- 

 nished to those Governments. 



* vv mist the above was in press the Acting Prime Minister was advised by 

 the High Commissioner that the Lords Commissioners of the British Treasury 

 are unable to agree to this suggestion, for the reason that it would not be 

 practicable to give special treatment to Australian wines in the matter. They 

 point out that the postponement of the operation of the new tables, as regards 

 wines, imtil 1st January, 1917, should enable any necessary alteration in the 

 strength of the wine to be made before importation into the United Kingdom. 



INCREASING THE MILK YIELD. 



The Farmer and Starlrhreeder says : — '' At the present time there is 

 a strong demand that farmers should do their utmost to increase the 

 production of food. It is interesting, therefore, to see what can be done 

 in the way of producing more milk and butter. The first point we 

 should remember in this connexion is, that the greater the milk yield, 

 of our cows, the cheaper will the milk be produced per gallon. We can 

 do very little by feeding. If we have a splendid cow we can feed her 

 so that she will do her best ; if we have a poor cow we can do the same. 

 But no amount of food will make a poor cow give a good yield. If 

 we try to force her she may give a little more milk, but the extra milk 

 will probably not pay for the extra food required. We might be able 

 to increase the number of cows giving milk, and each must think that 

 out for himself. The recognised way of increasing the milk yield of a 

 herd is by selective breeding, but that is a process which requires years 

 of careful attention to achieve a measurable improvement. By employ- 

 ing bulls of a good milking strain and mating them with selected cows 

 which have given good yields of milk, something can be done. The 

 importance of weighing the milk from each cow and regularly recording 

 it should be recognized. It is in times of stress usually that the greatest 

 progress is made. The progress made in Sweden by the work of the 

 milk recording societies is shown in the following calculated annual 

 yields per cow:— 1870, 2,600 lbs.; 1880, 3,700 lbs.; 1903, 4,200 lbs.; 

 1913, 4,730 lbs. The champion American Holstein-Friesian cow, Tilly 

 Alcatra, gave 30,451 lbs. of milk, so there is plenty of room for improve- 

 ment in the average cow still." 



