FARMING BY MACHINERY
[To the Editor of Tian &mamma.] Sia,—With reference to an article in your issue of December 30th, written by Mr. Hosier, I can vouch, as a neighbour, for the facts contained therein. He is the most practical man I know in agriculture, and his method could be advantageously used by many young men who are seeking experience and who imagine that there is nowhere but the agricultural college to get it. The Downs at Wexcombe (and he might have included in his reference to them adjoining similar properties) were brought under the writer's notice so long ago as 1888, when an official from the office of an Exeter firm of land agents was- sent to report on several farms then vacant in the locality. Wexcombe farm was included, and I remember the concluding part of his report. : that such land was of no agricultural value, and that the game rights in connexion therewith were of no value either, as the land would not produce sufficient grass even for cover. People at a distance concluded that Wiltshire Hills were incapable of producing grass of quality that would during the year keep one sheep per acre, and many refrained from viewing such farms because they were " high and dry," and the herbage of no feeding value. To-day a herd is maintained on this land producing the best of mills Mr. hosier introduced the Milk Bail, and it was some years before his neighbours made up their minds that it might be made to do, though many deemed it a failure. One or two, however, had one on the condition that it was of his own manufacture. Those customers would have readily obtained another ere this, if circumstances would permit, for they agree that the system is the only system that can produce Clean milk in the fresh air. Moreover, all his cattle and the cattle of his neighbours remain healthy by keeping outdoors.
I would like also to give my personal experience of some- thing else of the greatest importance to cow keepers. Years ago it was a common thing to find men with sticks and dogs to get together a herd of seventy to eighty cows that were spread over the land some distance from each other. They disliked being milked apparently, and it was difficult to get them to the house. Since the introduction- of the milking bail cows have only to be called and they come to the com- pound and go through the bail and yield their milk in a normal way. The former difficulty can only be put down to one fact, that the milkers handled the cows' udders roughly, and were not so gentle in getting the milk therefrom as the women nulkers in the West of England, where less milking trouble is experienced.—I am, Sir, &c., AGRICOLA.
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