VICTORIA.
For the past twenty years dairy farming in Victoria has been steadily advancing. The industry has proved very successful, so that thousands of farmers are not only making a comfortable living from it, but in many cases it has raised hard-working families into positions of comparative wealth. The principal markets supplied are those of Great Britain, South Africa, India, and the East. At present the industry is only in its infancy. It is capable of almost unlimited expansion. So far, farmers have confined their attention almost exclusively to butter, but the first steps have also been successfully taken to manufacture cheese and condensed milk, and to open up a regular market for fresh pork, hams, and bacon.
A large portion of Victoria is suitable for dairy farming on account of the suitability of soil for the production of pasture and fodder crops, and the mild climatic conditions. For the most part the cows are fed solely on the natural pastures, little provision either in the way of food or shelter being thought necessary. Progressive farmers, however, find that it pays them to grow fodder for their herd and to shelter the animals in the winter, and anyone beginning in Victoria is advised to make up his mind to cultivate a certain area of his land from the first, instead of trusting to grazing alone.
Shorthorn Cattle.
The southern half of Victoria is divided, roughly speaking, into the Western District and Gippsland. Two-thirds of the dairy cows are kept in these portions of the State. The Western District is famed for its rich soil of volcanic origin. Every town and hamlet has its butter factory.
Gippsland is a district of rolling hills and downs, and of a comparatively heavy rainfall. Many parts were once covered with dense forests, but these are rapidly passing away before the pioneer. Practically every railway station has become a centre of the dairying industry, and cans of cream are always in evidence on the platforms. Owing to its suitable climate Gippsland has become the centre of maize growing in the State, and much of this crop reaches the market in the form of butter and pork.
In the north the summers are warmer and drier, but the soil is perhaps even more prolific than in the southern parts of Victoria. Large areas are suitable for dairy farming under ordinary conditions, and extensive water storage works have been provided for the irrigation of large tracts of country which is being made available in suitable areas for dairying under very liberal conditions.
The manufacturing and marketing of the butter is carried on, to a very large extent, on a co-operative basis, the factories being owned and managed by the farmers who supply the cream. Two hundred factories are scattered throughout the State, the largest of them producing upwards of 40 tons of butter per week in the height of the season. Where the farm is close to the factory the milk is taken to the creamery, where it is separated, and the corresponding quantity of skim milk is returned to the farmer. In other cases the farmer owns his separator, the milk is passed through the machine as soon as the cows are milked, and the cream is sent to the factory by road or rail every day or two, according to the size of the farm.