BRITAIN’S CHOICE

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 9, 4 December 1931, Page 3

BRITAIN’S CHOICE

The late Lord Melchett, better known as Sir Alfred Mond, in an article on Russian dumping as it affects the Dominions, wrote : “The British people will be faced with a terrible and vital problem. They will have to make up their minds whether it is necessary for them to obtain the world’s cheapest agricultural produce from Russia, and to reduce their cost of living and, of course, their wages—in order to become once more the world's cheapest manufacturer, or whether, the world’s markets being largely closed to them by tariffs, they will agree with the Dominions to exchange manufactured goods for agricultural produce and achieve an economic stability on, at any rate, a reasonably high level. GETTING RID OF RABBITS An ingenious Kiwitahi farmer has rid his farm of rabbits by the aid of his motorcar at little cost in time, trouble or cash. Knowing how strong are the fumes of a car engine, he calculated that they would be deadly to rabbits confined in their burrows, so he attached a 10ft. length of hose to the exhaust pipe, to which is connected a 60ft. length of garden hose on the scene of operations. While his wife works the car he attends to the hose and blocks the outlets. He can run his car for three hours on a gallon of benzine. “If anyone wishes to make it easier,” he advises, “there is no need to bother to block the holes, as no rabbits come out, and I have cleared my property of the pest far quicker and with much less trouble than by any other method I have tried.” HOW LONG IS A COW IN PROFIT? The record for profitable longevity is claimed by a Californian farmer for his Jersey cow, “Old Katie,” who at 25 years of age recently produced her twenty-third calf and is giving four gallons of milk daily. Her owner 1 estimated his net profit from her in - the fourteen years of his ownership at over two thousand dollars. Another example of longevity is provided by the case of a pedigree Jersey cow which recently died at the age of 26. She has the following official records to her credit in her declining days—at 20 years and 5 months, 434.221 b. fat ; at 21 years 6 months, 538.611 b. fat, and at 23 years 1 month, 403.191 b. fat. The three tests after she was 20 years old is a record that will probably stand for some time.