Australia : The Dairy Country. 9 



" A great many," the report states, " of those engaged in pro- 

 ducing milk have had no training in the business. If a man can 

 milk a cow, or is willing to learn, he thinks himself quite able to 

 run a dairy farm. In time, if he is intelligent and observant, he 

 becomes as expert at his trade as if he had never done anything else ; 

 but his experience has certainly cost him a good deal. The men 

 who are neither intelligent nor observant learn little from experi- 

 ence, and their dairy methods leave much to be desired. It is they 

 who breed their cows anyhow, who keep no kind of milk records, 

 who think it economy to bring in their cows to the calving as hard 

 as wood, who depend entirely on pasture for food, who make no 

 provision for drought, who have nothing to learn from anybody, and 

 who are keeping the reputation of the Australian cow at a level 

 much below respectability. By-and-bye, no doubt, this type of man 

 will become scarcer. The State Governments are doing what is 

 possible to spread abroad scientific knowledge in dairying matters, 

 and a younger generation is growing up that has been made familiar 

 both with the practice and the theory of milk production. When 

 their time comes it is certain they will make dairying highly profit- 

 able. The fact that, with an average milk yield of ' something 

 under 250 gallons per annum/ the industry as a whole is in a 

 prosperous condition affords the most remarkable testimony pos- 



A typical Australian Dairy Farm. 



