696 



THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



when we reached the village and separ- 

 ated. I then heard that within half-an- 

 hour of my leaving the spot, the kegs were 

 in the crooks, and the horses well on the 

 road to the moor. I had told " Major" to 

 attach himself to Lorane, and he appeared 

 later on at the cottage with his head carried 

 high, with a very decided air of " all right " 

 about him, which I quite understood. 



Captain Winstead, if still alive, still 

 believes that the kegs were thrown over 

 board when Lorane baffled the preventive 

 cutters by running close into the Skerries — 

 so close, that it looked like certain death, 

 but meant escape, not defiance ; and I 

 had had my first and last experience of 

 " The Fair Trade." 



Size of Cows and Product oi Butter. 



NEWSPAPERS are publishing a state- 

 ment with respect to a test of the 

 butter-producing capacities of a herd of 

 forty-five cows, but fail to say where the 

 trial was conducted. The test is said to 

 have lasted over a year, and it was found 

 that the bigger the cow the less the 

 quantity of butter produced as compared 

 with her weight. Of course, the larger 

 the cow the more food would she need to 

 support her body ; therefore the cost of 

 her butter would be greater than that of 

 a smaller cow, and in the course of, say, 

 ten years her beef, if sold to a butcher, 

 would have cost probably a good deal 

 more than its worth in consequence of 

 the great extra annual consumption of 

 food. This would be extra costly if bran, 



pollard, crushed oats, meal, and copra 

 cake were allowed, as is usual, to milch 

 cows. In the test cows averaging 

 1,000 lbs. weight produced 24*4 lbs. 

 annually for each 100 lbs. weight ; cows 

 averaging 900 lbs. to 1,000 lbs. produced 

 37-4 lbs. per 100 lbs. live weight ; cows 

 averaging 800 lbs. to 900 lbs. produced 

 39-4 lbs. per 100 lbs. live weight; and 

 cows averaging 700 lbs. to 800 lbs. pro- 

 duced 41-7 lbs. per 100 lbs. live weight. 

 Taking the cows at 1,000 lbs., 950 lbs., 

 850 lbs., and 750 lbs. each respectively, 

 the average yield for each cow in the 

 several divisions would be 244 lbs., 

 355-3 lbs., 339-9 lbs., ana 312-75 lbs. for 

 the year. 



Hand'rearing of Calves at Hel's Rust. 



By Ergates. 



MEETING Mr. Geo, D. Alexander a 

 short time ago, we got into conver- 

 sation about calf hand-rearing. The con- 

 versation ended in his inviting me to go 

 out and have a look at the Nel's Rust 

 calves. I went last week, and a lot of 

 calves in better and more even condition 

 I have never seen. 



" How many calves are there, and what 

 are the losses ? " 



" There are fifty-nine, and one is dead, 

 and that was really accidental. A few 

 days ago it got away, during the run out 

 for exercise, and ate eome noxious plant, 

 probably stramonium, which brought on 

 gastro enteritis, and it died in a few 

 hours. I am certain it was poisoned. I 

 was a good deal vexed, because I had 

 hopes of rearing a hundred with- 

 out any doss whatever. But it 

 must be remembered that accidents of 

 this class occur under all circumstances, 



and that the hand-rearing work is done 

 entirely by natives. I am seldom here 

 (Meyer's Hoek homestead) more than a 

 couple of days in the week. Please also 

 remember that this is the season of the 

 year that many stock-breeders say calves 

 cannot be reared." 



Before leaving I was fortunate enough 

 to induce Mr. Alexander to promise to 

 send the lecture he delivered at the last 

 meeting of the Farmers' Conference to 

 the Journal for publication. The lecture 

 will be revised, and the points which have 

 been found most open to discussion or 

 calling for further elucidation will receive 

 special attention. 



The building and the plant of the Nel's 

 Rust Creamery are about to be largely 

 increased, and the steam power for the 

 machinery will be substituted by water 

 power, to be transmitted by electricity 



