Interior of a Cheese Factory.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
The Dairying Industry has not developed as rapidly as other branches of farming in the State during recent years. The cause of this is attributable to various reasons, one of the number of which has been the difficulty of obtaining suitable farm labourers. The majority of young men who have embarked in farming in the Western State during the last decade have favoured the lightly-timbered belts more suitable for wheat and sheep raising in preference to the heavily-timbered land suitable for dairying situated in the coastal districts of the south-west. That there is in the State an enormous area of land which is eminently adaptable to the growing of fodders necessary for successful dairying has been amply demonstrated. Since 1905 indefatigable efforts to advance the Dairying Industry have been made. An estate at Brunswick, in the vicinity of Bunbury, about 100 miles south of Perth, was purchased by the Government, and 800 acres of it was vested in the Department of Agriculture for the purpose of a State Dairy Farm, on lines that could be copied by a practical dairy farmer; also—
(1) For supplying stud stock of the best strains procurable at reasonable prices to dairy farmers.
(2) To demonstrate that with the assistance of irrigation a small acreage of land can be made to carry a large number of stock.
(3) Where a variety of fodder crops can be introduced, and experimented with so as to ascertain their value for feeding-off, both in a green state for curing into hay or for preserving into big silos in a succulent form.
Capacious cow and calf stables, suitable sheds, and piggeries were designed and constructed as an example to be followed in starting an up-to-date dairy farm. A herd of dairy cows, of some of the best Ayrshire strains in Australia, was collected, as well as a fine number of Berkshire pigs, purchased from the most successful breeders and importers. Three large tub silos, capable of holding 250 tons of fodder, were erected in which to store winter-grown crops as well as the summer crops under irrigation.
"Crown Prince," Guernsey Bull.
An irrigation scheme was carried out, and the results have been most successful. The following dairy fodder crops have yielded prolifically:—Oats, rye, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, vetches, field peas, cow peas, lucerne, mustard, Jersey kale, field cabbage, turnips, swedes, mangel wurzel, silver beet, buckwheat, potatoes, linseed, pig melon, paspalum, Italian canary grass. The0 irrigation plant is capable of dealing with 80 acres of land in the summer months. Some of the land thus treated is the rich dark alluvial on the river bank, while a portion is on the higher clay plateau, and consists of land typical of many thousands of acres in the same locality. The land in its virgin state was timbered with red gum and flooded gum, and cost about $38.40 an acre to grub and clear, and on such land with irrigation in the summer two heavy crops a year can be depended on.