138 THE STATE AS FARMER 



which I should have referred, perhaps, on an 

 earlier page. The effort to secure the whole- 

 milk trade in a district calls out the business 

 capacity of many farmers who serve the 

 State ' indifferently well ' in all respects 

 except perhaps one. In order to reach a 

 certain uniformity in organisation to the one 

 specific purpose of milk, they buy all their 

 cows and sell them when dry ;-o the butcher. 

 In reply to remonstrances they refuse to make 

 any distinctions, milk records are meaning- 

 less in their administration ; they buy the 

 best cows they can and then sell them to be 

 killed. A policy such as this is disastrous in 

 the extreme, and if it were general it would 

 lead to the destruction of our best herds. 

 In fact these strenuous ones can only exist 

 through the apathy of the rest of us, for they 

 sample of our best at fairs, markets, and 

 private farms, and preserve none, not even the 

 1200-gallon cow. A farmer of this kind is 

 out of place on a farm of his own. He is 

 invaluable in the management of a dairy farm, 

 in the feeding and general treatment of his 

 herd ; in the cleanly milking and distribution 

 of the milk. But he should be supplied with 



