PRACTICAL DAIRY FARMER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 54

PRACTICAL DAIRY FARMER

The- first three essentials in order to secure clean milk are a clean man, a clean pail and a clean cow. * * * * * In milking, two points shou’u always he remembered! —to milk clean and to milk rapidly. You want to, make the cow believe that 3011 are aftei every drop of milk, and if there is any sympathy between you and the cow yen will get it. * The “Hawera- Star’ .states that a settler at Normanby, Mr J. White, recently sent four shipments of pork to itngland, and the one return he has got so far shows that he has done very little better than if he had sold locally. At the time the pork was sent away low prices were ruling, much lower than have been on offer since. The directors of *the Awahuri Dairy Factory are payiiig~'S£d for butter-fat for December. The tests are stated to be -very high, and the quantity of milk received was considerably in excess of that of December last. It is stated that the freezer is in full working order, and had proved most satisfactory. Some big tallies in sheep-shearing were recorded at Mangatoro last week. For three days in succession Mr A. Friis’s tally was over 200, the numbers being 230, 217 and 203. Mr P. O’Grady, a well-known West Coast shearer, put up tallies of 223, 211 and 198, while Mr G. Taylor’s were 227, 212, and 205. A well-known Weber settler, new to ma_ chine-shearing, was credited with a tally of 198. By the Rotomahana last week two lots of Leicester stud rams were brought up from Canterbury for North Island breeders. One line of sixty was consigned by Messrs King and Company, of Christchurch, to Mr Brewer, of Palmerston North. And a small line of twelve was consigned by Mr F. C. Tabart, Christchurch, to Messrs Johnston and Company, of Wellington. Some very interesting particulars in regard to this trade are supplied by the Produce Commissioner in London of the Agricultural Department. Writing under date of December Ist, the Commissioner says :—“ The mutton market has for some time been in a rather peculiar position. Demand has been very slack on the part of retailers, but stocks are in few hands and firmly held at good prices. The unseasonable weather has hindered consumption of mutton, although it has been favourable to the sale of lamb, which has been realising 54 d to 6d per lb, or l£di to 2d per lb more than at this season last year, and stocks are well cleared. Australian lambs have not yet commenced to ■ come forward in any quantity, and though there are some Dutch selling cheaply, New Zealand lambs continue to sell well in spite of that competition. If present prices could be maintained for all the New Zealand lambs that come Home throughout the lamb season, how much .better it would be for the colony than selling them, as is so often done, at to 4d per lb. And this, I believe, could readily be obtained if only supplies were curtailed, and the markets consequently not glutted, as they so often have been. This opinion I have held for a very long time, and it is some years since, from my experience of the trade in this country, I wrote urging the retention of the fat ewe lambs in the colony for breeding purposes rather than slaughtering them —the cream of the flocks—for shipment. lam greatly pleased to see that at last there is some agitation in the colony to prevent the exportation of the ewe lambs, and trust' that it may be successful in bringing about an improvement, not only of the price obtainable here for lambs, but in the quality of and consequent increase in the demand for New Zealand mutton. Prices for mutton are, and have, ben for some weeks, good, being from 3§d to 4ld per lb, with another Id per lb for prime light weight ‘'Canterbury” grades. I only feel disappointment that the sole cause of these high prices should be shortage of supplies. Beef has not been selling quite so well lately. This market is ruled l so entirely by the supply of American chilled beef that any change in the quotations for that affects the New Zealand beef trade at once.”