helpful Government supervision.

"The disadvantages are:—(1) Dear and scarce labour, (2) an inferior stock of milk cows, (3) occasional dry seasons, and (4) the farmer's inexperience and ignorance of scientific dairying."

These several points are touched on in this pamphlet in the chapters dealing with the individual States, but some general remarks are offered here in regard to the four points mentioned as operating disadvantageously.

(1) Dear and Scarce Labour.—Every young country at times experiences the difficulty of procuring sufficient skilled assistance to keep pace with the rapid expansion of its industries. Australia is no exception. Dairy farmers there have not always been able to obtain experienced milkers. The farmer with children old enough to assist him is at a great advantage, and some of the most successful dairy farms in the Commonwealth are worked mainly by the owners and their families. But where the herd is too large, or the family too small, the milking machine, which is really a valuable aid to the dairyman, has been pressed into use, with satisfactory results.

There is no doubt that rapid as has been the expansion of this industry in Australia, its development has been distinctly retarded by the want of reliable milkers.

But what is the farmer's bane is the farm labourer's boon. The scarcity of labour has checked the farmer's operations, but it gives the man seeking employment a wider field.

Competent milkers readily find employment at $4.80 to $6.00 per week and keep. In every important district good dairy hands also have facilities extended to them for entering into arrangements for dairying on shares, with profit to themselves (see pp. 16-18).

(2) An Inferior Stock of Milk Cows.—The fact that while in many districts there are to be found dairy herds averaging barely 300 gallons per cow per annum, with a butter fat percentage of little over 3.5, carried on the same class of land as herds which average over 500 gallons per cow, with over 4 per cent. butter fat, will enable any dairy farmer to realise how much room there is for improvement in this thriving young industry, and what scope there is for the man accustomed to get the best results from his land and his herd. But the Governments of the respective States afford special facilities by way of importing and placing at the disposal of farmers stud cattle of the highest standards. Private persons are also doing a great deal in importing and breeding high-class animals. Herd-testing associations are becoming more numerous. Farmers are learning that it is profitable to keep milk records and to cull out of their herds the cows that do not give payable yields, and pronounced advancement is being made in this direction.

(3) Occasional Dry Seasons.—The effects of dry spells, which sometimes occur even in the best-watered dairying districts, can be greatly minimised by the conservation of fodder, by cheap and easy methods of silage. So rich is the country in succulent natural grasses, and so congenial is the climate, that farmers exhibit a tendency to rely too much on the bounty of the seasons. This is what the Scottish Commission meant when they referred to the friendly climate as being the dairyman's most dangerous enemy. It is true that in normal years milch cows may depasture the whole year long on the natural pastures, and on this food alone yield milk of magnificent flavour, producing butter and cheese of the highest quality. But there should be put by to supplement the natural fodder during dry times a supply of food either as hay or silage. The experts of the various agricultural departments strongly advocate the use of the silo, but the advice has not yet been generally adopted.

As the loss in the silo is insignificant, it can be realised how cheaply ample stores of the best class of stand-by fodder can be conserved. Silos to hold 100 tons cost about $480.00 to construct, and a cutter and elevator about $144.00. To this would have to be added the cost of a horse-works or engine, but until a settler is in a position to indulge in the most up-to-date outfit, he can follow the usual practice of serving his greenstuff in the form of stack silage, which entails a very moderate outlay.

Many crops excellent for silage are easily grown, and the cultivation areas need never be idle for a day at any time of the year. As one crop becomes fit to use, the land can be replanted irrespective of weather conditions. For instance, in spring (September) maize or sorghum can be sown, either over the whole area at once or at intervals of a week or a month up to January. In three to three and a-half months, during which time the pastures are at their best, and there is no need for supplementary fodder, the first of the areas will be ready for use as green fodder, or for conversion into silage to serve as a cheap and juicy winter fodder. In many districts as soon as the earliest-sown maize crop is harvested a second maize or sorghum crop is planted, and by the time that is ready to cut, barley and vetches or field peas can be planted to come in to supplement the stores of winter fodder.

Maize is harvested for silage when the cobs are well filled, and the grain is beginning to glaze; at this stage a normal crop will yield about 20 tons greenstuff per acre. Sorghum will produce about 15 tons, and barley and vetches or peas about 10 tons per acre. Wheat and oats are often grown in order to be cut for hay, and make an excellent fodder.

Another most valuable crop to the dairyman is lucerne, which will keep in a well-built stack for an indefinite time.

(4) The Farmer's inexperience and ignorance of Scientific Dairying.—To this last point the Scottish Commissioners furnish a reply in their report.

"A great many," the report states, "of those engaged in producing milk have had no training in the business. If a man can milk a cow, or is willing to learn, he thinks himself quite able to run a dairy farm. In time, if he is intelligent and observant, he becomes as expert at his trade as if he had never done anything else; but his experience has certainly cost him a good deal. The men who are neither intelligent nor observant learn little from experience, and their dairy methods leave much to be desired. It is they who breed their cows anyhow, who keep no kind of milk records, who think it economy to bring in their cows to the calving as hard as wood, who depend entirely on pasture for food, who make no provision for drought, who have nothing to learn from anybody, and who are keeping the reputation of the Australian cow at a level much below respectability. By-and-by, no doubt, this type of man will become scarcer. The State Governments are doing what is