THE RURAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21362, 16 June 1931, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD.

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

By Rtrsxicus

Dairying The dairying season is now practically closed with a number of factories having finished their operations for the season and the remainder about to close down. In view of the belter return available for butter, a number of factories changed over from cheese to the manufacture of butter for the latter portion of the season. Butter manufacture has a good deal to commend it for the period of the year when the decline in quantity is rapid. A smaller staff is sufficient for butter manufacture, and the factory thus avoids a higher overhead charge. In addition, for this season, at any rate, butter has been a better proposition than cheese for the primary producers. From Monday of last ■week advances to factories were fixed at lOd per,lb for butter and 4Jd for cheese. This, is an increase of id per lb on butter and 3d per lb on cheese. It was understood that as soon as the markets for butter and cheese improved that advances would be increased. and now that an improvement has taken place the increases have been made. The advances made during the current season on the first day of /each month have been as under:—

A Trade Report In their monthly market report Joseph Nathan and Co., Ltd., state that sales of butter in store and to the end of the season continued to be made during May, but these operations were chiefly confined to one or two buyers only, the highest price paid being that to the Eltham factory of Is OJd for 15,000 boxes. During the last week spasmodic sales have been made at Is OJd, but buying appears to have ceased either through the fulfilment of orders or lack or suitable butter. The increase in consumption is being steadily maintained, and stocks at the end of May were approximately 50 per cent, lower than for the same period last year. Details for the month of May

5422 3630 The statistical position continues to be satisfactory, and with the uncertainty of the early season conditions on the Continent, the prospects for, butter would appear to be brighter over the next few months.

This year will see an extension of the policy of spreading shipments of New Zealand produce over a longer period than formerly. Previously, it was the general belief that returns would suffer considerably if New Zealand produce met new season’s from the Northern Hemisphere. While this may be true as regards the bulk of the New Zealand season’s shipments, it is' evident that satisfactorily to cater for customers’ requirements they must be able to purchase supplies of New Zealand all the year round. Shipments of New Zealand butter and cheese this year will therefore be larger during the off season than has been the case in previous years. The Outlook for Cheese

In sympathy with butter, cheese quotations have also appreciated, state Messrs Nathan and Co., and to-day is quoted at 53s to 54s per cwt for white and 56s per cwt for coloured, as against 46a to 50s per cwt early in May. Some buyers have picked up small parcels at from 5d to 5Jd per lb, f.0.b., possibly with the idea of recouping some portions of the losses incurred on their earlier purchases at 6d per lb, f.0.b., a figure which the market never reached.

Taking the position as a whole, however, the outlook for any real improvement docs not look too bright, although it has been reported in some quarters that 60s will be obtained in the near future. The stock position at the end of May showed in store, London, 198,000 crates, against 110,161 for the same period. While deliveries for the month are ahead, it will be some considerable time before they overtake the supply. Strong recommendations have been received from London for improvements in the quality of New Zealand cheese, and it is more than likely that standardised cheese will cease to be exported after this season. If such will be the case, it is to be hoped that the stocks in London will.be liquidated before the arrival of the new season’s full-cream cheese.

When the Pie Wa» Opened , Sometimes the birds sing—but not always; some pies are very indigestible, says the Bradford Wool Record. But to get to the meat. In a certain sale room the attention of buyers has been directed to the law governing public auctions. This law dates back about 80 years, and, intcr alia. makes provision for the infliction of heavy penalties on all who offer inducement, or accept inducement, not to bid in a public auction for the purpose of obtaining the goods at a lower price. The warning seems to be unnecessary, unless it be that too many cooks spoil the pie. If a buyer purchases a lot and then, in an attempt to do his kind action for the day, offers to share his good fortune with someone whose need is greater than his own, what says the law? Wool Heralds General Recovery Neither in this nor in any other country is it possible for statesmen and financiers to wave a magic wand and dissipate the accumulated gloom of. months. The awakening is bound to come like the first glimmer of daw-n, and is it not possible that the recent recovery in the raw wool market heralds the dawn? Wool, it has frequently been stressed, was among the first of the world commodities to slump in value, and in view of its international importance as a commercial article it would not be unreasonable to expect it to be among the first to recover. At any rate, that opinion is now strongly held by many who hitherto have taken a pessimistic view of the outlook, and no doubt it accounts in a large measure for the hardening tendency in raw material values.

The Lamb Trade An increase in the lamb schedule -which took effect from Monday last brought the top price to 6Jd per lb. This is the highest figure that has been paid in the south so far this season and as there arc still fairly large numbers of lambs to pass through the works the benefit obtained by the farmers will be fairly considerable. The London market has shown a fairly steady improvement and the present position is somewhat encouraging. Those farmers who elected to take the risk of shipping in preference to accepting the prices which were offering locally earlier in the season will show very satisfactory results in view of the market improvement and several who have followed this policy, are very pleased with the facilities offered by the freezing company to handle lambs on this basis.

The output of lambs this season is estimated to be much greater than in previous seasons, and although in other respects weather conditions have not been completely favourable for the farmer, the fattening season has been most successful. No Price Fixing

Sir Graham Waddell, chairman of the Australian Woolgrowers’ Council, has expressed keen interest in the statement of the leader of the South African delegates to the Empire Wool Conference, that South Africa would not consent to artificial fixing of wool prices, as they considered the principle was uneconomic and unsound. “ This also is the officially expressed attitude of the woolgrowers of Australia,’’

Items of Interest to those engaged In agricultural and pastoral pursuit* with n view to their publication in these columns, will he welcomed. They should be addressed to “Rusticu*” Otago Daily Time* Dunedin.

Sir Graham said. " During the last year or two many proposals involving the fixation of prices have been put forward, but the Australian Woolgrowers’ Council has rejected them all as undesirable and impracticable. *• The recent annual conference of the Graziers’ Association of New South Wales, representing over 9000 graziers, expressed opposition to any wool stabilisation scheme which has as its object the fixation of prices of wool. A similar resolution was adopted by the Sheep and Wool Committee at the Bathurst Conference of producers and consumers. I think, this is the general feeling in all the States. ■ The organised woolgrowers of Australia are pinning their faith to orderly marketing, and the law of supply and demand, and it is encouraging to us to be assured that this is also the attitude of the South African grower. The New Zealand Sheepowners and Farmers’ Federation has also expressed its view as definitely opposed to any attempt at fixation of prices.”

A PROBLEM IN PEDIGREE

BREEDERS’ TALL ORDER TO THE TWENTIETH GENERATION Recently the American Hereford Journal received an innocent-looking and quite innocent sounding letter from a breeder of the “white-faces” in which was the following question:—“ What would be your charges for having pedigrees written out to the twentieth generation? ” The writer wished to have extended pedigree in table form in order that he might become familiar with the antecedents of his herd, so that it did not seem an unusual request for a pedigree going back 20 generations. Moat pedigrees go back no further than the fifth generation, and only four times further back does not seem to offer any very serious difficulties. The editor of the Hereford Journal, however, decided to go into the matter for his correspondent, and as a result arrived at some staggering calculations which must have amazed and daunted him no loss than they did his correspondent. After some figuring—really big figuring too—he found that with an expert pedigree tabulator on the job, disposing of 100 names an hour, which is very fast work, and devoting eight hours per day to the job with Sundays free, this 20generation pedigree would be completed in about eight years and a-half. Of course, that was only with one person working on the job. THINK OF THE COST. The cost of the work was easily estimated after the time was arrived at. Without going into unnecessary details the cheque the breeder would be asked to write out when the job was done would be considerably over £SOOO. Even if the employment of three or four experts made it possible to reduce the eight years and a-half period by half or a quarter the cost would still be very heavy. It may be conjectured that the breeder in particular wi'l be content with the orthodox five generation pedigree after hearing of the time and cost involved in his 20-year idea. But time and cost are by no means the most amazing aspects of the contract. What is even more staggering is the length of the story that would have to be written before the 20 generations would appear in tabulated form. Allowing one inch and a-half for the length of names in each generation the pedigree sheet would have to be 30 inches wide. So far bo good. Bat to go deeper into 'the matter the depth of the sheet must be taken into consideration. Written on the typewriter, and allowing five lines to the inch, the pedigree would require a sheet of paper measuring 17,476 feet in length, or roughly three and one-third miles. It would indeed be a formidable task to make only the form for a 20generation pedigree. In the first generation there would, of course, be only two names, those of the sire and dam. In the second generation this number would be doubled, and as the generations go on each number would be doubled since each sire and dam mentioned must have a mother and father. PLAYFUL LITTLE DOUBLES. By this process of doubling each generation in the pedigree would have the following number of names: —•

That fatal twentieth generation it is that is responsible for most of the trouble. It is that last generation that requires over three miles of paper. The average pedigree with but five generations included in it has only 62 namop in its entirety. The twenty generation pedigree would have no fewer than 2,097,150 individual names in ite make-up.

WITHOUT FATHER OR MOTHER. And now, having arrived at all these figures, one would think that it was just a matter of time and money to £et the 20 generation pedigree. There is only one more difficulty—the question of getting record books to go back far enough, A great-great-great-grandson of Prince Domino could be carried to the twentieth generation according to the record books. This great-great-great-grandson of Prince Domino would be by a great-great-grand-son of Prince Domino, by a great-grand-son of Prince Domino, by a grandson of Prince Domino, by a son of Prince Domino, by Prince Domino, by Domino by Publican by Paladin by Lamplighter by Don Carlos by Anxiety 4th by Anxiety by Longhorns by Mercury by Jupiter by Franky by Walford by Clungerford by Dinedor, and if you look over the records you will find that Dinedor apparently had no mother or father.

. And after completing that top line of the pedigree it would be an easy matter to finish the rcmander of the tabulation —just a little easy matter of eight and a-half years’ solid, steady work.

Butter. Cheese. Pence Pence Month. per lb. per lb. August .. .. .. .. 12 C4 September .. 6 October ., . 5i November .. ,. .. 9i 5i December .. 44 January .. , ., .. 10 44 February .. , 4 March .... .. .. 11 4i April .. .. .. .. 9J 4 May .. .. 9i 34 June . .... 4i

ate:Deliveries. Stocks. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. 1931. 1930. 1931. 1930. May 8 . , 1482 1050 6456 10,450 May 15 . . 1485 700 6841 3,035 May 22 . . 1355 875 5596 10,000 May 29 . . 1100 1005 5900 10,816

1st—2 names. 2nd—4 names. 3rd —8 names. 4th —16 names. 5th—32 names. 6th —64 names. 7th—128 names. 8th —256 names. 9th—512 names. 10th —1024 names. 11th —2048 names. 12th—4096 names. 13th—8192 names. 14th —16,384 names. 15th—32,768 names. 16th—65,536 names. 17th —131,072 names. 18th—262,144 names. 19th—524.288 names. 20th —1,048,576 names.