EDITORIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1201, 8 March 1895, Page 5

EDITORIAL NOTES.

A perusal of the country papers published in dairying districts proves that the vexed question of milk testing is causing considerable annoyance to suppliers who, in many instances, are loudly complaining of unfairness on the part "of the factory managers There is special anl marked dissatisfaction amongst tile suppliers of the Dairy Farmers’ Union factories, and as an outcome of this a well attended meeting of milk suppliers was held at the Levin Creamery last week. The Manawatu Farmer reports the discussion which took place, and states that the following are the grounds upon which the test on which suppliers are paid is declared to be unfair : —The test bottle is filled from the night’s and morning’s milk of each supplier, when mixed together in the receiving tank. In each test bottle there is a certain quantity of churned cream, which cannot go through the tester, consequently the supplier loses the true value of his milk. The test bottle on being filled in the morning is placed in a cool spot and forwarded to Wellington on the following day, the milk being set and shaken about alternately for from forty to fifty hours before being tested. The Farmer adds i that the surprise tests, or tests made at the creamery on the morning of delivery have giver* fay better results

THE MILK TESTING QUESTION.

in all cases, and the meeting was of opinion that the Union should have the milk tested at each Creamery two or three times during the month, and pay on that test, so that the suppliers should get .good value for their milk. They should also test in the usual way, for detecting and adulteration, and if any adulteration be detected the supplier so at fault should be made to pay the penalty.

The climate of Hawke’s Bay has long been held to be specially suitable to vinegrowing, and the ricfi lands of the Heretaunga Plains and the alluvial flats in the immediate neighbourhood could not be bettered in the way of soil. Two well known Hawke’s Bay squatters have now gone in for viticulture in real earnest, and being men of both money and brains, the experiment will be made under exceptionally favourable conditions. The first is Mr J. N. Williams, whose magnificent property near Hastings is the admiration of everyone who visits Hawke’s Bay. Mr Williams has made a start by planting 1300 vines on an acre of ground, and is, we understand, very hopeful of complete success. Mr H. S. Tifien, the second of the two gentlemen referred to, has gone in for vine-growing on a much larger scale. His vineyard at Taradale has, we read in a Napier paper, no less an area than 22 acres under vines. Mr Tifien’s wine-making plant is most complete, being sufficiently extensive to deal with all his own grapes and with those of other growers in the district. Mr, Tifien expects this year to get no less than 3000 gallons of wine, but when his vines are in full bearing, it is estimated that the wine production of his vineyard will be from 12,Q0Q to 14,000 gallons The finest plants have alone been used, ar.d with skilled viticulturists employed the enterprising proprietor should produce a New Zealand wine never before equalled. These Hawke’s Bay enterprisers ought to have the best wishes of all New Zealanders for their complete success.

a hawke’s VINEYARD.

At the meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Brisbane last month, Mr G. G. Mair read a paper on the subject above named. Ju the course of his address he laid down the following principles for the guidance of breeders:—“Nature culls or selects only in order to propagate the animals best fitted to survive under her conditions of life. When man takes in hand the breeding of animals lie does so with a view to making them more profitable for some specific economic purpose, such as milk, meat, wool, swiftness, endurance or fancy. There are some well-known principles that experience has established for guidance in the moulding of any type of animal a breeder may conceive as his ideal. The chief of these is heredity—-like producing like This principle of like producing like applies more generally to family types or ancestry than to immediate individual parentoge. Notwithstanding strong heredity, there is always a great variety in individuals, no two animals or blades of grass being exactly alike, and this variability givts plasticity and power to the breeder to mould a form or type of animal by persistently cutting off from breeding those least resembling the ideal animal he aims at giving form to, and breeding only from those most resembling his ideal. By continuing for generations persistently working for his ideal, by seleotion and treatment, the breeder may gradually approach his conception of a perfeot animal for the purpose for which he is breeding, but will never attain it, as his ideal will improve with experience, his taste gradually getting more and more critical. ” In connection with the same subject, Mr S. S. Cameron, of the Melbourne Veterinary College, read a paper entitled The Intercommunicability and Prevalence of Human and Animal Tuberculosis.” He. drew attention, with much detail, to the evidence which existed of the transmissibility of disease from man to animals, or from animals to man. He dwelt particularly on the danger of infection through milk, and showed that a large proportion of the infantile deaths from tuberculosis were due to imbibing t milk from diseased cows. There were no regulations, he said, in force to combat the spread of tuberculosis through the consumption of infected meat or milk, save in New South Wales. But here we think he is wrongs as recent legislation in this

LIVE STOCK BREEDING.

colony provides what we trust may prove efficient safeguards againts the evils he has mentioned.-

The London correspondent of the Australasian Pastoralists' Review is generally so well informed, and his predictions are usually so accurate that we are glad to notice- this gentleman refuses to rank himself amongst the pessimists as regards the future of the wool trade. In the last issue to hand of the Review he says :—Viewed as a whole, the position of the colonial wool trade is not without some grounds for hopefulness. The steady increase in the world’s production of gold is looked by many as likely, ere long, to conduce to a general appreciation of the prices of commodities, and it seems not unreasonable to anticipate that a long series of lean years, during which a constant shrinkage has taken place, should be followed by expansion and an upward movement. That some improvement in the prices of wool will be witnessed in the year which has just begun, notwithstanding the increased supplies promised from Australasia and the Hiver Plate, is not improbable ; at the same time, there seems more likelihood of its taking place during the later rather than during the earlier six. months. -

THE WOOL TRADE.

.At Timaru last tveek the Stipendiary Magistrate had before him a case which is of some interest to farmers, and the details of which, should be carefully noted by students of the law of. trespass, A Mrs Cole, owner of a farm in the Washdyke district, alleged that she had been annoyed by the trespass on her land of pigs belonging to one of her neighbours, the pigs having seriously damaged a crop of oats. As the land was not surrounded by a “ legal ” fence there was some difficulty in the way of obtaining damages in the ordinary manner, and section 14 of the Impounding Act was relied upon. This provides special trespass rates for pigs and goats, Is a head for the first trespass and 2s a head for each subsequent one within three months. A record was kept of dates and numbers of pigs turned out of the crop in some weeks of January and February, and the owner of the animals was sued for L 5 Is, made up of charges of 2s per head per visit, after the first three at Is each. Mr O. Perry appeared for plaintiff and Mr .Raymond for defendant. The latter submitted that these special trespass rates are* to be collected through the poundkeeper, or by'the owner acting as poundkeeper, and are not to be treated as statutory damages to be sued for. His Worship read the Act in this way, and nonsuited plaintiff.

A CURIOUS LEGAL POINT.

No. 14 of the leaflets for farmers series is reprinted in another column* and deals with the Hessian Fly pest, upon which Professor Kirk gives some very nseful and interesting information. On all sides we hear warm praise of theaction of the Department of Agriculture in issuing these excellent pamphlets, which cannot fail to be ofi the highest utility to the settlers-. Others of the series will .be re-printed in the Mail in due course.

LEAFLETS FOR FARMERS.