EMPIRE'S FARM ANIMALS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIX, Issue 88, 4 November 1938, Page 4

EMPIRE'S FARM ANIMALS

The meeting for the first time in England recently of an Imperial Veterinary Conference was an event of considerable interest, notes the Spectator. Animal husbandry is the most important side of farming over a large part of the British Empire. Mr F. L. McDougall, who opened the conference, estimated that in the United Kingdom animal products represented about 70 per cent, of the value of products sold off farms, and in Australia and South Africa the proportion was nearly the same, while in New Zealand and Eire it approached 80 per cent. Moreover, as the report of the League of Nations Nutrition Committee has recorded, rising standards of living in the world imply less consumption of grain and sugar, and more of milk, dairy products, eggs, and meat, besides fruit and vegetables. To reduce animal disease means reducing cost of production. The importance of veterinary science has been grossly underestimated in the past, as was shown by the low social and professional rank accorded to its practi-

tioners. Things are now better in that respect, and better brains are going into the work in view of the better openings.