[Conducted by Winnower.] NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXXI, Issue 70454, 3 October 1900, Page 4

[Conducted by Winnower.] NOTES.

The weather during the past few days has been wet and boisterous, quite a change from the beautiful spring climate we have been experiencing. We have now been having an eastern gale since Saturday.

Dairy farmers experience considerable difficulty in obtaining competentmilkers, and at present, the demand far exceeds the supply.

The world produces the enormous quantity during twelve months of 8,420,000 tons beef (let it be noted, not bullocks). Pork runs to 3,970,000 tons, and mutton to 2,810,000 tons. The nations concerned in this huge output are the United States, 4,500,000 tons ; Russia, 2,290,000 tons; Germany, 1,520,000 tons ; France, 1,200,000 tons ; Great Britain, 760,000 tons ; Australasia, 600,000 tons ; and the Argentine, 420,000 tons. Boughly speaking, it will thus be seen that the Anglo-Saxon community are responsible for more than half the meat supply of the world. It is suprising to note that France, with her splendid agricultural resources, is so far behind Germany in the yearly output of meat.

The ideal pig from a bacon-curer's point of view — according to the manager of one of the largest English bacon factories — is the one possessing small bone, length, depth, plenty of fine hair, good hams, and short legs ; the animal not to exceed nine score pounds weight. But, says the same authority, much depends on the feeding. The baeoa pig

must bo fed liberally from its birth, and must not be allowed to run into a lean condition, and then bo "built" up. Once a pig is allowed to get into poor condition, no amount of after-feeding will secure thick and streaky middle parts.

An idea of the extent to which cold Btorage is now adopted in Great Britain can be gathered from the fact that there are nineteen meat stores in the London metropolitan area, with a combined capacity of 6,000,000 cubic feet, and forty-seven meat stores in twenty-six provincial towns with an area of about 8,000,000 cubic feet. If these stores were all filled with refrigerated sheep, they would hold nearly 4,000,000 carcasses.

The number of horses purchased by the War Office from the London Road Car Company for service in South Africa was 1627.