FARM AND STATION.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13108, 6 May 1908, Page 2

FARM AND STATION.

("Weekly Prepe and Referee.")

BEEF BEEEDS IN THE UNITED

STATES

Mr John Clay (of Messrs Clay, Robinson and Company, live stock agents. Chicago) ,who is the leading autbority im the limited States on matters" relating to stook, who has interests in Scotland, his native country, recently gave aji address to students of Edinburgh College of Agriculture. He said that in the United States shorthorns had fallen upon evil days. The Booth shorthorns had got to a period when they were almostueelees, because, in the first place, they had no milking power, and, in the second place, they went far too much to beef for the country. On the other band, they had the great Batee cry, which ran "their shorthorns to very narrow, wasted, unhealthy, «hd what proved to be animals of no good to help the beef industry. When the Bate* bubble burst about 1877, there had just begun to appear the Hereord, the Aberdeen-Angus, and the Scottish shorthorns, and tihoso three breeds had been the powers by which they had been aWo to improve their cattle, and make them second to none in, the wodd. They could well imagine it was a battle of the breeds. Im the fall of 1879 he himself got very much to the top of the treo as a breeder of slrorthorns through bringing out the shorthorn steer Clarence Kirkleving-. ton } which won all round as a yearling, a tvo-yeer-old, and a three-year-old, and finally crowned his career as. champion of the States and .Gftnada on. the block. . At the sime time'he very coon sa>w that they had other flaotors to deal with tha/n the shorthorn, and when ho got upon the range in 1882 he to tackle the Hereford himself, and he thought that not the least part of has success had been due to the fact that he was able to fight and run away, and live to fight another day. He entered into this battle of the breeds with all his energy, and found that the shorthorns arid Herefords were good on fcbe range, but the Aberdeen-Angus were superlative on the fnrm.' About 1880 the great ranch business reached Hβ aeniJth. The shorthorns were followed by the Herofords, and from that time they had gono on continuously improving their oattle until now the Texas cattle, as a whole, were as good as any in the States of the Union, because the greatest attention had been paid to the rnros which the breeders had drawn, not only from this coun.trv. but from the Eastern States and Canada. THE DRESSED TTIAD^E. From the breeding of beef oattle the subject, natturelly m sequence was dressed beef, in which the Americans have built up aai immense trade. As; Mr Clay remarked, thov had, through . great improvements in the manufacture of the raw material into dressed beef, been, able to put American products to the end of the world, arid \w Ktised a laugh by saying that if they got to the North Pole they would find I pile of tin cans there. They ha<i 900 dressed beef institutions in the United States at the present momedit under the control of the United iSUtee. Every piece of meat, everything that : went out of those eetauushments, had ; to be inspected by the United States ; Government. The inspection was car-: ried out under a Civil Service regime ; by experts in the business, and there ; oould be no ulterior influence used, j The dressed beef institutions were car-: ned out on a systematic plan, and • the organisation was the most splendid j he had ever seen in his life. Though > Mr Clay ddd not admit it, the com-1 pletenese of the present system is no) doubt partly due to the Chicago meat i scandals. "Apart from that, ho went j on to say they wore all drifting from j the old steer." What they wanted to- j day was baby beef. a.nd the American j farmers had not token long to drop into the w - of turning off their cattle as soon as they could. Thoir host | breeders saw that the animals were fed j as it were from the cradle to the | grave. ■ They never let them go beck, j What had helped them in this respect was their great fnt stock tinowe. At the International Show last December there were 7000 animals on exhibition, or with the car-lot entries 8500— an object-lesson in the production of the j highest clew of stock. They might go | and look at Uredlne cattle in this amd - other • countries, Cut the cattle hoi wanted to look a.t, from a commercial | point of view, were the cattle that marched up to the block, and had to! be put upon the table. In America the fault, if they had any, was that their cattle were" running too much to quality , and too little to quantity. On the plains th-ev had put Hereford to Hereford, and the consequence was that by using co much of that Blood they had run a great number of their oattle down to a small size, and while | they looked beautiful and were neat, j they were not so good commercial r cattle. They had got to go back and ; take a cross or strain of the short- • horn so as to get, not- only the qua.ntity, but the quality. The Aberdeen-. Angus cattle hnd Ifoen «i failure on the ranee. They ATere very useful animals on the farm, and had given them fai* and away +he finest cattle that came to their Chicago market. They now I had a strong competitor in the Argen- ' tim?. which was sendinc more t*jf t* to the United Kingdom than tho Ignited i States. The Argentine hae developed J bbih the; froeen a"nd ahilled'ihioat J

trade, and has mtrttaa as well as beef to rely upon, wfoile the Americans have done little or nothing in building up an export trade in mutton, where the Americans stand in, regard t©v sheep tneV be gathered from am editorial artiicle in this iesue.

THE TUBEKCXJLIN TEST. The National Qatti© Breeders' Association (England) •* ofce of their recent meetings bad before /them th* question of the tuberoulm test as ojpplied to animals for export to th© Australasian colonies. At a nwtog c Juoje a letter had been received from Messrs A. Mansell and Co., calling attention to the fact tbafc-any animal bein°- shipped to Australasia had to pass the tuberculin test within ten days previous to shipment, and pointing out that such a regulation was most difficult to carry out, for it meant that if at the last moment, an animal intt'ndrd Tor shipment failed, there was practicpi'v no time left to select another to take ite pJaoe. The meeting direr: rd ik<> sK-cre.ta.ry to wnte to the Asfn.f-Gruv:-n.l. asking that the tnrte alic-.vcl for ti?.'> test should be extended. a:ul er.:r:c; tmg it should be one month 'inetl-ad of ten days. Certain replies to this letter were considered at the meeting, and the secretary was tiirth<>r instructed to wnte otlH-r l/'-tcia, and to this latter communication lie had received the followimr replug :—From the Agent-General for VirU'iia to the effect that tho reo-uJat.kjn.3 xvoiiid be modified so as to allow the animals intended for shipment to be tested within one month instead of ten days, ac at present, on condition that the animais tested are not brought into contact with any others, except those that have passed iho test, from the time the test takes placa to tho date-'of shipment; from the Agent-Gencrail for Tasmania to the effect ithat should any of the other GoyOTniiiGivts of the OomniomwearHh agree to lengthen the p«nod of time allowed in which the test is to bo appHeH' &n'bject to the .precaution as to isolation,"it ie ■ probable that the Toein a.ni am Gorornimnit would also agree; and from the Now South Wales Government to the effect that co far as regards their State no chango in the rVmrlations appeared necessary or decirablo. It is not,stated if any reply was received from. Uho High Cpnimisoinner for ?iw Zealand; or whether he hi id boon coimr.unica.ted with. 'flhe request ie a very reasonable one, for MessTK Mansell and Oα. pointed out tihe difficulty tho present a.ma.ng«mon,t caused/ A well-known importer of stock into New Zealand experienced groat difficulty in filing his requirements a few years ago, owing *to his selections failing to puss the test, and in one case o breeder a? the last moment refused to allow an animal undor offor to the importer to be tested for fear that if it failed it might prejudice the eale of his stock. The secretary woa directed to write i*> the other Governments of the Coananonweakh. and ask them to fall in with the conditions made by tiho Victorian which, in the opinion of this Association, representing ten of the leading 'breeds of cattle, appear reasonable and satisfactory, and at the same time iiffording ample protectoon to the importer.

AN IDEAL SHIjIEP FOR THE U.NITED STATES. . In iho editorial article in thds issue it is meniti6.n«l tthat experimente are being conducted in tie United States with a view to producing on ideal ehoep for the western ranges, a elieep that will produce & heajvy fleece of wool and a good carcase of mutton. What about Now Zealand Corriedales If they are ihe ideal sheep -Uiey are claimed to be O6 a substitute for the pure merino on our back country, they should be equally afc iiome on the western ranges ol tho SUutes. They have the merino iuNlmerica, aaid therefore it would not bo difficult to nroduce the • inbred halfr bred with either the English Leicester or Lincoln sire. But while eoroeiihing has. been don«j in importing and raasi ing flockeTof Irhe vanoue Doivfa-'TSii'eedf in the Eastern States as farm'era' eiheeb, the langwools and thedr crosses have apparently be&n neglected. Some exNew Zealanders settled in one of tihe States, I forgot which-, were telling their neighibouTe about the Romney Marsh Sheep, Which, they considered suitable for the particular locality, a rather wet one, >the New Zealand ere harine had experience of -the .breed in the North Island. As a -number of residents of the district were going to tho St. Louie Exhibition, it was arrnmged that the Romaoy March sheep" exhibited there 6hould be inspectedi The New ZeaJanders wore, however, disgusted to find that the specimens of the breed ehown were so poor that their American friends only laughed at thorn. Not to bo 'beaten, however, the New Zealanders offered to 6end fox p>hoto.{rrapbs of typicaJ specimens of the breed ench as* are to he found in the "Dominion., and it'"is to be hopcsl tliat thoy hare been able to show their neighbours where they can obtain such sho&p if they want th«-m.