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Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LV, Issue 37, 11 May 1934, Page 5

It is estimated that at least £100,000 is lost to New Zealand every year in the value of hides as a result of careless fire-branding of stock and bad flaying. Mr H. E. Blyde, president of the North Taranaki provincial executive of the Farmers' Union, has displayed at annual branch meetings of the union two pieces of leatherer to demonstrate these two faults to farmers. Branding was invariably done on the rump, the most valuable portion of the hide, and one piece of leather fully a foot square carried a figure fire-brand which had gone right through, the hide, ruining the leather. The brand, a large one in the first place, had been put on quite a young calf, and had grown with it, so that the figures are approximately nine inches high, and the iron must have* been much too hot, for it could be read just as plainly on either side of the leather. The other piece of leather was damaged in three or four places, as the result of bad flaying, and this fault was also seen on either side.