Ig 
The Dairy. 
Should Cows be Stripped ? 
Should cows be stripped after milking 
or not? Discussing this question in an 
English journal, Professor McConnell, 
the eminent English dairy expert, says 
that he is one of those who all his life 
was accustomed to see cows stripped out 
by a responsible person, who followed 
after the regular gang of milkers; but 
recent eve:ts caused him to change his 
mind as to the advisableness of the prac 
tice. Many authorities have pointed out 
aforetime that, as the milk secretion was 
intimately connected with the nervous 
organisation, the stopping of the milk 
and then coming back to start it again 
were doing the cow harm, as it amounted 
to restarting of the nervous energy. 
About a year ago Professor McConnell 
atated his belief that strippin gwis abso- 
lutely necessary. He now takes it all 
back, as since then he has tried his cows 
the other way, with the most satisfactory 
results. They are now milked out at one 
sitting, and if a small quantity be left in 
the bag. the professor argues, it does the 
-cow no harm, and as there is no possible 
gain then in stripping, he contends that 
it is discounted by the harm done to the 
cow by the stripper in starting her neryous 
force once more. Alongside the cessation 
of stripping, however, another practice 
has also been abandoned—that is, the 
changing round of the gang of milkers. 
so that each cow is milked by each milker 
in rotation ; every man now sticks to his 
own lot of cows, and as one cow drops 
‘out and another comes in the lots are 
kept as equal as possible. As far as 
Professor McConnell can see, the results 
to the cows, to the milkers, and to the 
milk yield are eminently satisfactory, and 
he, for one, will not go back to the old 
system. 4 
Dairy Notes. 
The state of the weather has a marked 
effect on the milk flow, and a change 
from warm to bleak cold weather will 
always cause.a considerable falling off if 
NO provision is:made to protect cows by 
-stabling or rugging. Excessive heat is 
also detrimental, and shady shelters 
should be erected, if no natural shelter 
-exints, 
When milkis allowed to stand in shallow 
“vessels; the'fat globules, which are lighter 
than the milk serum, will rise to the sur- 
‘face and form a layer of cream, ‘This 
‘separation may be accelerated by rotating 
‘the milk very rapidly, as under the in- 
‘fluence of the centrifugal force the light 
“fat globules rise very much quicker, and 
sat the same ‘time the separation ‘is more 
-complete and ileaves’a- skim ‘milk contain- 
‘ing only‘traces of butter fat. ‘The compo- 
-sition of the cream depends entirely on | 
the manner in which the separator is 
~worked, and cream may contain from 20 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
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to 60 per cent. of butter fat. Tha keeping 
quality of the cream again will depend 
Jargely on its richness, and a cream con- 
taining only 15 to’ 20 per cent, of fat 
contains still a very large amount of milk 
serum, with its casein and milk sugar, 
which soon gives rise to fermentation, 
bad flavours, and various taints. The 
ripening of a richer cream will proceed 
more uniformly and fayorably, the churn- 
ing of such cream will give better results 
and produce a high-grade butter, and the 
cream tests are easier checked 
If milk is kept in dark, ill-ventilated 
cupboards it very sooi acquires an insipid 
or perhaps a bitter taste, and very definite 
signs of puirefaction begin to appear if it 
is left there for any time. 
In many dairies (says the ‘ Journal of 
the Board of Agriculture’), particularly 
in large ones, where the sale of clotted or 
Devonshire cream is considerable, a quick 
method of producing thi: article is em- 
ployed. Insteod of the preliminary set 
ting up of the :nilk in pans for twelve or 
twenty-four hous, as the vase may be, in 
order to allow tie cream to rise, the milk 
is passed through a separator. The sepa- 
rator is regulated to take off thick cream, 
and this cream is then run gently on to 
the surface of some separated milk con- 
tained in tinned or enamelled iron pans: 
Scalding is then carried out in the usual 
manner, not less than half an hour being 
occupied by the heating process. The 
pans are then rapidly cooled, and the 
cream obtained in a thick clotted condi- 
tion. Where there is a separator this is 
a very good way to make clotted cream, 
especially in summer, when it may always 
be obtained sweet, In hot weather, if the 
milk has to stand for several hours for the 
cream to rise, there is a danger of souring 
taking place. 
Some dairy farmers always remove the 
calf from the cow as soon as it is born, 
This is all very well if the well-being of 
the calf is not a consideration, but, 
althouyh the latter will thrive fairly well 
when hand or bucket fed, it will never 
become such an animal as that which is 
allowed to remain for the first two or 
three weeks with its mother. To all 
appearance the milk is the same, and the 
calf gets as much as in the natural way ; 
but, for all that, there is a marked differ- 
ence in the results, and it is undoubted 
that the sucking calf will not suffer from 
such complaints as scouring to anything 
like the extent that the bucket-fed calf 
experiences, 
When cleaning dairy utensils, always 
rinse them ‘first with cold water, If -hot 
»water is used, the sticky albumen coagu- 
lates on the sides and bottoins of the tins 
‘and is:very troublesome to remove. After 
‘rinsing with: cool: water, wash thoroughly 
with hot water, using plenty of alkali, 
suchas washing powders or caustic soda, 
and ‘elbow grease.’ !'Then again rinse in 
fresh, hot »water, and .set:them in the-air 
to dry, 
Mammitis, an inflammation of cows’ 
udders (causing a form of diphtheria in 
human beings), which threatens to over- 
April 1, 1908 
whelm the dairy herds of New Zealand, 
has been successfully attacked by a 
German specialist by injections. The 
disease yerms giin admission through 
the milk canals, and the German there- 
fore attacked them along the same 
channels. He first thoroughly milked 
the udder, and then cleansed it with 
warm soapsuds and a 3 per cent. solution 
of creolin. After the udder had dried, 
injections were made into the milk 
cisterns with solutions containing 5 per 
cent. creolin or camphorated oil. The 
treatment was repeated three times daily, 
and in nearly all cases brought about 
prompt improvement. 
Some big figures were put up by Lord 
Rothschild’s dairy herd last year. Tho 
average yield of 18 Jerseys was 7,455 lb, 
per annum, the highest individual yield 
being 10,000 1b., and the lowest 4,909 lb, 
Ten of the 18 cows gave over 7,000 lb, of 
milk The average for the 40 Red Polled 
cows comes at 6,571 lb., the top place 
having been gained by a cow nine years 
old which gave the remarkable yuantity 
of 12,005 lb. 
When trouble with stringy milk occurs 
it is usually overcome by carefully clean- 
ing the cow’s udder before milking, wash- 
ing the milker’s hands, and thoroughly 
steaming the tinware, strainer, cloths, 
cans, etc, 
Pedigree is valuable in a way, but it 
must be backed up by the performance 
of ancestry at the milk pail. This, after 
all, is the best test of a cow’s ability and 
worth, 
It is reported that, in the markets of 
the Far Hast, a brand of butter is being 
sold in imitation of a well-known Victorian 
brand. and also that there is being sold a 
compouna which is made to appear like 
Australiau butter, with the object of 
deceiving the purchasing public, Mr. R. 
B. Levien, the Victorian commercial agent 
for Japan and the Far Kast, has forwarded 
to the Government a statement regarding 
these imitations, and he has also asked 
the British Consul-General at Shanghai 
to endeavour to protect Australian trade 
from such foreign devices. Mr. Levien 
says he is of opinion that the imitations 
of which he complains are made in Hol- 
land.—‘ Australasian.’ 
THE AUSTRALIAN 
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