EUROPEAN DAIRYING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 85, 21 January 1942, Page 3

EUROPEAN DAIRYING.

EFFECTS 0# GERMAN CONTROL. INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS. « * Sidelights on how the dairying industry in several of the German-occu-pied countries of Europe is progressing are given in the following brief reports which appeared in a recent exchange. •

Belgium.—“Libre Beige,” a secret newspaper published by Belgian patriots under the same title as in 1914-18 states that the Germans are taking out of Belgium 8000 head of cattle and 4000 pigs per month. Many food shops have closed, as they have sold out their irreplaceable stocks. New quotas under food rationing now stand weekly per person as follows: Margarine l.Soz butter 1.40 z, but even rationed quantities are not always obtainable. France. —German agents are visiting all dairies, even those in the remote mountain regions, and commandeering cheese and butter, which are at once dispatched to Germany. Holland. —Owing to the lack of fodder, nearly more than half the cattle and nearly all the poultry have been slaughtered, but practically the whole of the resulting meat has been sent to Germany.’ Farmers are endeavouring to keep as much oL’ their stocks as possible with the result that a number of cattle- markets have been closed. Milk is rationed and the cream taken off to produce butter for Germany. Denmark.—From Denmark, as from Holland, the Germans now require their butter to be unsalted. This is possibly because they do not like salt butter, but iti js widely held that the blitter is not used for food, but for technical purposes. Czecho-slovakia —Farmers have been forbidden to produce butter on their own premises' and by decree are compelled to deliver all milk to the dairies, and their churns have been sealed. Another order regulates the composition of milk which is now required to have a fat content not exceeding 2.4 per cent against the 3.G per cent, average of the past. Cafes and hotels are limited to separated milk.