DEVON HERDS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19460, 6 November 1928, Page 12

DEVON HERDS.

CATTLE AND CREAM CRITICISED.

THE PIG TRADE OF ENGLAND.

(IBOK OUB OW* COBBXSPOHDEWT.) LONDON, September 21. - East Devon cattle and cream were criticised by Dominion judges at the coming-of-age show at Axminster Agricultural Association on September 12th.

In the opinion of a New Zealander, the cattle of the district were ( an insult to the rich pasture on which they grazed. "There is scope;" he said, "for really good dairy herds and high milk production." Criticism of the cream came from a dairy officer of the Australian Commonwealth, who attributed "a distinctly metallic flavour in some of your exhibits" to rusty dairy utensils. The show attracted 354 entries, a slight increase.

Sheep were an outstanding feature. There was an increase of ten pens over last year's total, and the quality was improved on the exhibits of many local shows.

Apart from the Devons, the quality of the cattle was somewhat disappointing. Mr S. Manning Kidd presided at the luncheon.

Mr W. W. Sampson, responding to "The Judges," suggested the Society should introduce open classes for hunters, as nothing sold better than, or helped the agricultural exchequer more than, a good hunter, which made anything from £200.t0 £3OO. Mr Knapman predicted a better time for the pig trade in the course of a few months. In this country, he remarked, there was a population of 45 millions, and there were three million pigs. In Denmark, with a population of three millions, there were three million pigs. Farmers would have to do something if agriculture were to survive. As long as they had to sell it in the open market and at the same time pay fixed wages, they would have to find some other means besides growing corn to make a living. Metallic Flavoured Cream.. Mr F. Wigan (Australia), speaking as a judge of the cream, said he found the chief fault with the flavour. There was a distinctly metallic flavour in some of the exhibits, which indicated that some of. the utensils used —separators or buckets—had suffered by the tin coming away and the exposed iron becoming rusty. That was a matter which certainly called for attention. Mr W. G. K. Wright (New Zealand Dairy Factory Managers' Association) referred to the rich pasture land of the neighbourhood, and said he did not know why they should insult it with the dairy stock they put on it. The stock were of the beef type. They would not be milked in New Zealand, but would be kept for stock. The Bed Devon seemed to be a dual purpose animal. It milked fairly well, and was picked for the block when ' its milk period was finished. There was scope in the district for really good -dairy herds and high milk production. Sir Raymond Beck submitted "The Visitors," and Sir Clive Morrison Bell, M.P., responding, said he would like to' see the food which this country had to import coming from the Dominions rather than from foreign countries.

It took nearly fifty men a day's hara work to clear up the Utter left in Hyde Park near the Marble Arch after the August Bank Holiday.