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Northern Advocate, 15 August 1919, Page 1

"Farmers don't know so much about their cows as they think they do," said Mr Singleton, of the Dairy Division, in an address on herd-test-ing to dairymen at Levin, He stated that in several cases after tests had been carried out by his department the owners had been asked to pick out what they considered their eight best cows. Very few. had been able to do that. One farmer, when invited to select his best butter-fat cow, picked out an animal that was not even among the first four, and when told that his highest fat producer was a cow with three teats which he had passed over, he exclaimed in surprise: "What, who would have thought it, and her with only three teats!" It was only by testing, said Mr Singleton, that these things were discovered,

According to a statement made at Morrinsville by the manager of the Waikato Flaxmilling Company, the flax industry is in danger pf dying put in New Zealand, owing to the increasing value of land and high cost of labour. The difficulty New Zealand hemp has is to compete with manilla and sisal—the product of cheap labour. There are also the increased freight charges. The company is going out of business in this district and 170 acres of flax country is being converted into dairying land. Another miller confirmed, these statements and said that flax hemp could only be prepared in paying quantities where the mills were run by water power and where the flax was bought from farmers who had it growing wild on thejr properties. The industry has been affected by the railway restrictions. Over 400 tons of uninsured hemp is lying in store in Morrinsville and cannot be removed until th c restrictions are lifted.