1907.] Cost of Food in Production of Milk. 325 



that in many instances a great saving might be effected in the 

 cost of producing milk. If even \&. per gallon could be 

 effected on the average of all milk produced, the gain 

 to the country would be immense, and seeing that there is a 

 difference between the highest and lowest of 2%d. per gallon 

 in the cost of food, it should not be very difficult to effect 

 this small saving. A well-known proverb is " that a penny 

 saved is a penny gained," and in this case if \&. per gallon of 

 milk produced by a good milking cow could be saved on its 

 food, a sum equal to from £1 5s. to £1 10s. would be gained on 

 each cow 



Fenwick District. — This parish lies north of Kilmarnock, 

 and connected with it there are two milk record associations. 

 For No. 1 a record has been kept of the food consumed 

 during the past three years, while for No. 2 it is available for 

 1907 only. This is a district where all the milk is now sent to 

 the large centres of population for consumption as milk, and 

 on that account every farm produces more or less milk all the 

 year round. In this case the cost of food consumed compared 

 with the milk produced has been taken from the New Year to 

 the middle of May. The period over which it extends is not 

 only long enough to give fairly reliable results, but the results 

 being available for three consecutive seasons afford an excellent 

 opportunity for comparing the outlay for food required to 

 produce a gallon of milk, not only on one farm compared with 

 another, but on the same farm in different years, when the 

 method of feeding was probably different. 



On only two of the farms in the No. 1 Association were any 

 turnips used, the average for these two being 21 lb. daily. 

 The home-grown food most largely used all over the district 

 is Timothy hay, which was consumed to the extent of 9-25 lb. 

 daily, together with oat straw 5-7 lb., meals and cakes 8-43 lb., 

 and bran or treacle 2*07 lb. More concentrated foods have 

 been used here than in the Cumnock district and slightly less 

 hay, but otherwise the ration does not materially differ from 

 that in use in the Cumnock district. 



For the whole three seasons the average cost for food of a 

 gallon of milk has been 4*37^., which is fully j-i. per gallon 

 more than it was in the Cumnock district' for the spring months 

 of the one season of 1907. It should, however, be noted that 



