306 DAIRYING PASTURE AND FOOD 



encouragement of the natural tendency of the public to con- 

 sume daily a larger quantity of full milk. 



Richard Barter, St Ann's Hill, Cork, a pioneer in this 

 system of dairying, has 



" Found from carefully kept records that cows calving in 

 December and January give the largest return of milk for 

 say ten months in milk as there comes on a second flush 

 of milk when cows get the grass at the end of April and May, 

 and they yield during the summer nearly as well as if they 

 calved in March." 



Associated with the increased supply of winter produce, 

 co-operation for manufacturing and marketing purposes is 

 in the great majority of small holdings an absolute necessity 

 for success. The co-operative creamery system has proved a 

 great success in the south and west of Ireland, and at the 

 same time an immense advantage to small holders, who 

 individually are powerless to secure a market connection. 



House Feeding as practised in the Production of Milk 

 for a Town Milk Trade. 



When good non-pedigree milking Shorthorn cows are 

 kept at all seasons in the house, and fed to the highest 

 degree possible, the yield per cow can be made double that 

 obtained under the natural system described the produce 

 can be raised from 550 to 1 100 gallons. This system is not 

 compatible with calving down the cows a second year. 

 Animals approaching their prime, viz., after the third or 

 fourth calf, are selected, which after milking for nine or 

 twelve months, when the yield of milk becomes naturally 

 reduced, so that it would not pay to keep them longer go 

 directly to the butcher, without being put quite dry. This is a 

 severe drain upon the supply of our best milch cattle, and it 

 has unquestionably, since the development of the milk trade 

 in towns, tended to reduce the numbers of cattle in this 

 country. 



In a typical Leith dairy of 100 cows, yielding an average 

 of 3 J gallons of milk each daily during summer and 3 gallons 

 in winter, the daily food of an average cow weighing 1 120 

 Ibs., which cost 22, and six weeks after calving yielded 43 

 Ibs. of milk daily =i 8 Ibs. morning, 11 Ibs. forenoon, and 



