Devon Cattle in Australia.
Prime Herd of Jerseys.
At the present time there are three butter factories operating in the State, and no doubt when the Dairying Industry has developed sufficiently a number of co-operative factories will be started.
The men who decide to devote their energies to the Dairying Industry will have the advantage of a magnificent local market to start on, as at the present time Western Australia is sending something like $4800.00 a day to the eastern States for dairy produce.
The conditions of Tasmania are eminently favourable for dairy farming. Up till recent years the industry did not receive much attention, but now that a start has been made butter production is advancing rapidly.
The foundation of the Dairying Industry is grass, and to get grass, good land and plenty of moisture is required. Therefore anyone proposing to go into this business should endeavour to secure the very best land obtainable. There is a large quantity available, especially in the north-western and north-eastern parts of the island. There is a great deal also in the southern districts. Information can always be obtained from the Lands Department and the district surveyors, and no difficulty should be experienced by the intending dairy farmer in finding land suitable for his purpose. The more open parts of the State, such as the midlands andthe east coast, where there is natural grass, have largely passed into private hands, and later selectors have had to take up, clear, and lay down in pasture the more heavily-timbered portions. This, however, is not altogether the handicap it appears at first sight, as the returns from the very rich scrub lands are by far the highest. It is easy to judge of the quality of land by the indigenous timber upon it. Rich land, suitable for laying down in grass, is covered with a dense growth of sassafras, tree-fern, musk, and pear tree, with large blue or swamp gums, and an underbush of what are known as cathead ferns. Stringy-bark trees mean a poorer soil, and any land bearing them should be avoided if possible.
Any person of eighteen years of age and upwards may select an area not exceeding 200 acres of first-class land, provided he does not hold land on credit under any previous Act. He is required to pay a cash deposit of $0.04 an acre at the time of sale, an instalment of $0.06 an acre for each of the two following years, $0.24 an acre annually for the next four years, $0.36 an acre for the next four years, and $0.48 per acre for the next eight years. The survey fee is paid, one-fifth in cash and the balance by four equal annual payments, with interest added, unless the selector elects to pay it off at once, when interest is remitted. Every encouragement short of giving the fee simple of the land away for nothing is afforded the intending settler, and he can acquire a freehold on easier terms in Tasmania than anywhere else.
Ayrshire Herd, New South Wales.
Clearing a selection for dairy farming is a very different operation from the clearing required for fruit-growing. Where the land is to be laid down in pasture, no ploughing has to be done, consequently the cost is very much less. In clearing land for grass it is the best plan to first of all "ring" all the eucalyptus trees. This consists in cutting a ring round the tree with axes through the bark and sapwood, or alburnum, into the brown wood beneath. The crude sap, bearing in solution the various organic matters which the roots have extracted from the soil, ascends by the outer layer of wood immediately beneath the bark to the leaves, where it is elaborated into plant food. When this layer is cut through, the food supply is immediately stopped, and the tree dies. The operation of ringing is best done during the winter, when the sap is down, and if properly performed at the right time the tree always dies very soon. If possible, the ringing should be done a year or two before the general clearing is commenced, as all the dead leaves, small branches, and dead bark have time to fall, and are then burned off with the rest of the scrub. The next operation is to cut down all the brushwood and smaller growths with bill-hooks, and then the rest of the scrub is felled with axes, and allowed to lie until quite dry, when it is burned off. A good burn should leave very little to be cleared up, but sometimes, where there is such vegetation as sassafras or fallen tree-ferns, a good deal of "picking-up" has to be done. This means that all the unburnt timber on the ground has to be rolled together and burnt. Tree-ferns should not be felled, as they do not burn well. The best way of killing them is to cut off the fronds just below where they spring from the stem. Some knack is required to cut in just the right place, but it is easily acquired. There are certain precautions to be observed in burning-off, which the settler should make himself acquainted with. Information on this point and in regard to any matters of practical interest to the beginner will be furnished gladly and without charge by experienced officers of the Department of Agriculture.
Clearing the Land.
As soon as the land is burnt off the grass may be sown upon it. No cultivation is usually given, the grass-seed being sown upon the ashes remaining from the burnt scrub, which forms very effective manure. Cocksfoot is the grass par excellence for this work, as it is very hardy and nutritious, and not attacked by insect pests to the same extent as others. Sometimes a mixture of cocksfoot, English rye-grass, and white clover is used, or the two grasses alone are planted. Local information is the best guide obtainable as to what it is best to plant. Dairying thus becomes practicable in a year or two, and returns are received much sooner than from any other branch of agriculture. It will, of course, be necessary to clear a certain amount of the selection for cultivation, so that crops may be grown, and it is often better and cheaper in the end to devote the poorer and less heavily timbered parts of the holding to this purpose, and buy manure. Some selectors clean up a part of the ground of roots and logs, leaving all the big ringed timber standing, and plough it up. It requires some skill to steer a plough under these conditions, but very good crops can be grown in this way.
Properly equipped butter factories are situated at Launceston (2), Deloraine, Burnie, Emu Bay, Wynyard, Stanley, Smithton, Wilmot, Ringarooma, Derby, and Pyengana. In the south there are only two of any magnitude, one in Hobart, and the other at Bream Creek. A well-equipped factory has been established on King Island, in Bass Straits, a locality that has been found very suitable for dairying.
The dairy herds of the State until a few years ago were of a somewhat nondescript type, very few farmers having realised the necessity of improving the butter-yielding capacity of their stock. Recently, however, great improvements have taken place, as the dairying industry has advanced, until now many Tasmanian dairymen own herds of the highest standard. The work of improving the milking strains of cattle is in the hands of the farmers themselves, but advice and assistance are always obtainable from the Government Dairy Expert.
This is a highly profitable branch of dairy farming, and the product is so small in bulk compared with its value that it is eminently portable. Cheese-making can therefore be carried on under conditions where other forms of production would be difficult.Some skill and knowledge are required, but the Dairy Expert regularly gives lectures and demonstrations on the subject in all the principal agricultural centres, so that any intelligent person can easily obtain all the information he requires.
The principal cheese factories in the State are situated at St. Mary's, Pyengana, Emu Bay, Devonport, and Circular Head.
The cheese produced is very good in quality, and a considerable export trade will soon be developed in it.
The production of hams and bacon is one of the collateral industries connected with dairying, as the skim-milk and waste products form a very valuable food for fattening pigs. Excellent bacon is produced in Tasmania, and a good deal is exported, but not nearly what might be produced.
Group of Prize Bulls.
It is the introduction of the dairy factory system that has solved the problem of success or failure for the dairy farmer. These institutions are becoming fairly numerous throughout the State, and are all equipped with the most modern machinery and managed by expert men. The farmer nearly always, nowadays, has his cream separator, and all he has to take to the factory is the cream, which does not occupy much space, while the skimmed milk remains on the farm for feeding pigs or calves. Some of the dairy factories in the State are proprietary, but others are on the co-operative system, under which the farmers are the owners, and share in the general profits, as well as being paid for their cream.
McCarron, Bird & Co.., Printers, 479 Collins Street, Melbourne.
[A]The personnel of the Commission was as follows:—Sir T. Carlaw Martin, Edinburgh (Chairman); Sir John R. G. Sinclair, Bart., Barrock House, Wick (Vice Chairman); Dr. J. H. Wilson, F.R.S.E., St. Andrew's University; Dr. Shirra Gibb Boon, Lauder; William Barber, M.A., Tererran, Moniaive; J. McHutchen Dobbie, Campend, Dalkeith; James Dunlop, Kilmarnock; R. B. Greig, F.R.S.E., Cults; William Henderson, Lawton, Coupar-Angus; James Keith, Pitmeddan, Udny; E. E. Morrison, M.A., Bonnington, Siravithie; and Alex. M. Prain, Errol (Secretary).
The personnel of the Commission was as follows:—Sir T. Carlaw Martin, Edinburgh (Chairman); Sir John R. G. Sinclair, Bart., Barrock House, Wick (Vice Chairman); Dr. J. H. Wilson, F.R.S.E., St. Andrew's University; Dr. Shirra Gibb Boon, Lauder; William Barber, M.A., Tererran, Moniaive; J. McHutchen Dobbie, Campend, Dalkeith; James Dunlop, Kilmarnock; R. B. Greig, F.R.S.E., Cults; William Henderson, Lawton, Coupar-Angus; James Keith, Pitmeddan, Udny; E. E. Morrison, M.A., Bonnington, Siravithie; and Alex. M. Prain, Errol (Secretary).