14 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Juxy, 1899. 
“The Ayrshire gives a large quantity of milk of average good quality, but 
inferior in richness to that of the Jersey or Devon, and on some farms she may 
be the best butter cow. The same may be said of the Shorthorn. 
“The Jersey cow has some characteristics not common to other breeds. She 
yields not only a very rich milk, but itis of a deep yellow colour, and the butter 
is of a harder and more waxy texture than that from other breeds. 
“Among butter dairymen, the purebred Jersey or a dash of Jersey blood 
is very much esteemed. It is claimed that the butter from Jersey cows, on 
account of the peculiarities named, has a superiority which will command a 
better price than other butter. Much of the high-priced butter of Philadelphia 
is made from Jersey cows. 
“The dairyman should have a clear understanding as to his situation, the 
character of his lands, and what he seeks to realise from his stock, and then 
choose that breed which is best adapted to his purpose. Not that a thorough- 
bred herd is indispensable ; the cheapest and most practical course to be adopted 
will be to select the best common cows that are to be had, and cross them with 
a pure bull of the breed best adapted to his purpose.” 
From my own experience, I would not recommend a herd of Jerseys alone, 
the butter being too deep in colour. One in seven or eight is a very good 
proportion. 
Now a few words as to feeding and shelter. Both are necessary, but 
shelter without stall feeding is better than feeding without shelter. So much 
by way of preface. Feeding to be profitable must be abundant ; otherwise the 
cows will just hang about, and so do worse than when not fed. Then, again, the 
feed, whatever it may be, must be cheaply raised or there is no profit. It must 
not be supposed that because a cow is fed on a highly nutritious food, her yield 
of butter will increase in direct proportion. The real fact of the case is that 
every cow has a structural limit in the richness of her milk, and beyond this 
standard no amount of feeding will increase that richness. A cow that has 
not been fed up to that limit will, of course, increase until itis reached, and then 
will remain at a standstill. ‘Some dairymen are under the Pa that 
exceedingly rich milk is made by excessive feeding, ignoring the fact that the 
real butter cow must be sought for in particular animals or breeds noted for 
this peculiarity.” The same reasoning holds equally good as regards quantity 
of milk, which depends, not so much on the quantity of food eaten, as on what 
can be digested and made into blood, and the quantity of blood the mammary 
glands can convert into milk. As to the best food for dairying purposes, the first 
thing is variety, and in this respect good pasture is by far the best. For stall feed- 
ing, roots and green fodders of various kinds are admirable, and, if possible, the 
ration should always contain some bran or pollard or both, as they are both much 
above the standard value of food stuffs. Best meadow hay is taken as the 
standard, and is put down as 100, bran as 125, and pollard 115, so that, mixed 
in due proportions with poorer feeds, it is possible to make a standard ration. 
Of green fodders, the range is extensive. A capital mixture in Victoria, and no 
doubt in Queensland for the winter, is a mixture of oats, rye, barley, veitches, — 
and rape. Rape is also very good mixed with other feeds, but needs to be used 
sparingly on account of its high nutritive value—197—and also because of the 
oiliness it gives to butter. Ensilage is, according to the trials made by Mr. John 
Mahon at the Gatton Agricultural College, and published in the Queensland 
Agricultural Journal, useless for milking cows,* ‘Acdbsnyd in hard times it will 
be valuable for dry stock, because if it does not feed it fills, and a cow must — 
have its paunch full for the purposes of rumination. No hard-and-fast line can 
be laid down as to what is the best food; each dairyman must be guided by 
*1t was stated in the September (1898) number of the Journal that Mr. Mahon preferred 
green barley to ensilage asa milk-producer, but the ensilage he referred to was made of pigeon pea 
and green maize. In the Novewber number he corrected the impression which had got abroad 
that he condemned ensilage altogether. On the contrary, he has always advocated its use ‘if 
made from sound materials, not rotten stuff,” by which pigeon pea was understood. The College 
herd were at the time being fed on ensilage conserved from green oats and Cape barley with 
good results.—Ed. Q.4.J. ; ; 
