ON THE LAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 245, 30 July 1935, Page 7

ON THE LAND.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By “The Tramp”). Over 150 N%rfolk growers visited Boreham, Essex, toi see the developments—unique in British agriculture and horticulture —which are taking place on the Fordson estates, states a Home paper . The excursion was arranged by tne Norfolk Department of Horticultural Education with, the object of examining the application of mass production methods to market garden crops. Of particular interest at the present time was the crop of Soya ‘beans ; which looked well in spite of the severe May frosts. The crop extends over 40 acres. Other features of the tour were tiie cordon Apple plantation covering 70 acres, and tne 5 acres of glasshouses. The scheme in Essex, based on successful work in the U.S.A., was started in 1930. About 3,000 acres were purcnased by Mr lord and leased to fiordson Estates, Ltd., tor 10,000 years. Members of the Bedfordshire Chamber of Agricufture recently visited the estate.

According to th© “World’s Piess iNews,” the woollen merchants ana brokers in Australia and JN‘ew Zealand are to be asked to subscribe to a iAO.UUQ iuna lor co-opera uve advertising of Dominions’ woof. A director o a well-known London advertising agency says tnat his him is m negotiation with the scheme’s promoters, anu tiiat he has been invited t to submit a plan. The agency recommends that Hie necessary finance could be found by a levy on every bale of wool shipped by Australia or i\ew Zealand to Europe. The levy would amount to 6d a bale. it is realised that some advance campaign will be necessary to induce the Dominion shippers to finance such a campaign, and the London woo brokers are proposing to organise a three months'' editorial campaign lorn London to stir up enthusiasm overseas. It is estimated that the cost of this preliminary campaign, which will be purely editorial, will be m the neighbourhood of £1560. The campaign is to start almost immediately. The “World’s Press Eews” also announces that plans for a similar campaign for the British wool textile industry are being evolved by Mr Stuart A. Hirst, advertising specialist, oi Leeds. Mr Hirst said the matter had already been broached by clients of his, and he had received a large number oi letters from other manufacturers and from various trade bodies, all expressing sympathy with the project and hoping an equitable basis of co-opera-tion may be evolved.

The All-Uhion Cattle Breeding Institute of Russia lias decided to abandon its plan to collect wool by the artificial moulting of sheep and ‘other rur-bearing animals,” winch was to supersede the ancient method of shearing them. In the course of little more than a year, writes the Riga correspondent of “The Times,” Professor llyni, author of the plan, was granted i uUUjOOO roubles for experimenting on a large scale, and a programme was made to establish a “slieep and rabbit moulting section” on the “Giant State The process was devised in 1932, when it was claimed by Soviet experts that by administering certain “heavy chemicals” and subjecting rabbits and slieep to alterations of atmospheric the scientific farmer could make animals grow fleeces of any desired shade between black and white. A special dose would induce them to shed then coats at three days* notice, which would be “peeled off” in compact fleeces. Tlie animals would, moreover, grow and yield up to as many as lour fleeces a year. . . Professor Ilyin still maintains that this can all be done, hut there is one drawback with which he has not yet been able to cope; the medicine which caused the moulting has a detrimental effect on the health of the animals. Three years ago, when the Soviet Press announced that artificial moulting was to be immediately introduced as the regular practice in Russia. British and other foreign scientists applied to the institute for information on the subject, but they were informed with some rudeness that the moulting process and the chemicals used were a State secret which would not be allowed to go to capitalist countries. The Soviet press now states that the chemical used is gallium. Proiessoi Ilyin’s grant this year has. been cut down to one fifth of his former grant, but he will still experiment in the laboratory in order to find an antidote to the “toxic action” of gallium on moulting animals.

At the recent annual conference of the Veterinary Association, Sir Francis Frazer, deputy-chairman of the Executive Commission of Agriculture, rightly emphasised the great importance to New Zealand of the veterinary profession. He made the very interesting statement whereas New Zealand had one qualified veterinarian to every 750,03 U head ot stock, England and America had a. ratio of one veterinarian to every 16,000. Sir Francis also indicated that there was to be a national drive in New Zealand against tuberculosis in cattle, but at the present time there was not a sufficient liumbei of veterinary surgeons for the work. It was rather disappointing that Sir Francis did not refer to the urgent need of training our own veterinary surgeons. There are four university colleges in New Zealand annually turning out a small army of professional people, but the most important profession to the country next to that of human medicine is ignored. Some of the best veterinary surgeons in the country are the sons of New Zealand farmers who have had to go abroad for their training. It is rather obvious that men brought up on New Zealand farms would make more useful veterinary officers to the country than men brought up under the farming conditions of another country. They would hardly be likely in writing on such a disease as mammitis tell the farmer to “palpitate the gland” instead of massage the udder, as an imported veterinarian recently did. With, continued development of our live-stock industries, the demand must increase for veterinary service and the need for the Now Zealand trained veterinarian will be all the greater.

The members' of the British Milk Marketing Board are wading through troubled waters, as it lias been found impossible to put all producers on the same level. The scheme is such a huge one that human ingenuity must fail to

have it functioning smoothly in the short time it has been in existence. At tlie annual meeting held in London last month the Board came in for much criticism, yet at its close a vote of thanks to the chairman was as loudly applauded as the speeches of any of the critics. The matter of salaries should interest members of New Zealand boards. The salary of the chairman (Mr Baxter) was fixed at £1200; that of the vice-chairman £700; and members are to receive £350 each, making the total amount of salaries £7150. The members of New Zealand boards and the heads (only) of their staffs cost New Zealand producers more than double the amount paid to these Britishers who control hundreds of employees and produce far exceeding the total value of all the primary produce exported from the Dominion. New Zealand is lavishly extravagant in the salaries paid to many men who are at best only “middle-aged mediocrities with martyred ambitions.”