THE RURAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23504, 19 May 1938, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD

FARM AND STATION NEWS

By RUSTICUS.

Items of interest to those engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits, with a view to their publication in these columns, wfll be welcomed. They should be addressed to Rusticuti, Otago Daily Times, Dunedin.

OTAGO SHEEP DOG ASSOCIATION TRIAL DATES FOR 1938 Sheep dog trials under the auspices of the Otago Provincial Sheep Dog Association, together with Otago, Canterbury, and South Island championships fixtures have been arranged as follows: Wanaka.-May 23, 24, 25. Lowburn.—May 26, 27, 28. Tokarahi.—May 30, 31, June 1. Palmerston.—June 2, 3. 4. Ngapara.—June 6,7, 8. Waimate (Canterbury championships) ' —June 13, 14, 15. Kuriwao (Otago championships).— June 16, 17, 18. Warepa (South Island championships) -June 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. Tuapeka.—June 27, 28, 29,

WINTER SHOWS , LIST OF DATES Winter Show dates fixed for the various centres to date are as follows: May 24-28.—Hawera. June 3-9.—Dunedin. June 14-18.—Palmerston North. July 2-9.—Timaru. Honey Grading Dates The remaining honey grading dates arranged for this year by the Department of Agriculture with respect to Dunedin are as follows:—May 26 and 27, and July 21 and 22.

TOPICS OF Ik INTEREST OFFICIAL NOTES

The poor woman had after much persuasfoh'taker! her deaf-husband to a specialist and had paid a guinea for his advice. No good resulted, and the wife called on the great man and complained bitterly about the waste of money. "I am sorry," said the doctor, "but tell your husband not to worry, for there is nothing worth hearing nowaday*, anyway."

The following is the programme for the showing of the. International Harvester vComjiany's talkie Aim for the next'.week;—; ,; . _. , . .. To-day (Thursday), SI;. John's hall, Waikbuaiti; Friday, Oddfellows Hall, Palmerston; .Saturday, Ranfurly (for Mattiototo district); Monday, Middlemarch; Tuesday, Poolburn (for Ida Valley'district); Wednesday, Lauder. , The film'is free to all, and is of such universal interest that the opportunity of aeetag-It should not be missed.

The programme for the seventh annual meeting of sheep farmers, to be heldat Massey College on June 1. 2, iand 3,; is -now available,: and may be seen by -anyone interested at the Farmers'" /Union Office, Dunedin. The 'course covers a wide variety of subjects- and -.its educational, value cannot pe, qyerrestimated. .

The following is the report of the Milton branch of the Farmers' Union, which was presented at their annual meeting held recently:— •■

"The year just completed has. been full' of interest to farmers. The meetings Jiavevbeeri- very well-attended, as many as '4O members loeing present. Theannual social, although not as well attended a*, in some former years, proved very enjoyable. The annual picnic, which was held at Toko Mouth, was. Very largely attended, arid was voted one of the best picnics held by the union. '■■• ■■; ( -:'.V- ...;,. ■■ .„■ "The branch' has been very fortunate to/obtaining a speaker at every alternate meeting. The speakers and subjects dealt with were: Mr A. Craig, •Wheat Research', Mr F. Waite, ' Workings of the Dominion Council ; Mr'ft Mclntyre, * Industrial Changes ; Mr Saxby, 'Grasses. Clovers, etc.'; Mr H. McCallum, 'Travels Through Great Britain and on the Continent • Mr N. McDonald, 'Pig Industry.' "It is gratifying to report that che membership of the branch increased 100 per cent, during the past 12 months. This shows the farmers are. slowly beginning to realise that the Farmers* Union is working on their behalf. In conclusion, we desire to thank the Women's Division for the very capable manner in which they entertained the South... Canterbury touring farmers, also for providing "supper at the conclusion of every monthly^meeting." Hearty congratulations are extended to the branch for the wonderful work accomplished in increasing their membership. The large attendance at meetings is also a matter for gratffi-cation,-.arid is an indication of the live intereStfbeing taken in Farmers' Union affairs.

BRITAIN'S FOOD

The following is a further list of this year's office-bearers of Otago branches of the N.Z.F.U.:Upper Clutha branch—President, Mr L.''R.' Morris; vice-presidents, Messrs A. T. Allison and J Colling: secretary. Mr T. J. Allison. Waikoikoi j branch—President, Mr D, Stark: vice-presidents, Messrs J Burnett, John McCall, iand A. Gow: secretary, Mr G. Simmers. ' Waitahuna branch—President, Mr R. McCaw;. vice-presidents, Messrs H. B. McCorkihdale and A. J. Lunan: secretary, Mr J. Walker. Wakatipu branch—President. Mr W, P. Saunders; vice-president, Mr T. Houston: secretary, Mr lan W. Brown. West Taieri branch—President, Mr A. J, Cameron; vice-presidents. Messrs W. J. Reid and M. Costello. Waipahi branch—Pre-ident, Mr W. Conn; Vice-presidents, Messrs T. Whiteside, A. Cameron, and J. Laughton: secretary, Mr J. S, Dickie.

In reply to the representations made through the Dominion secretary by the Otago Provincial Council, N.Z.F.U., to the Minister of Agriculture in regard; to facial eczema, the Acting Minister says:

"The position is thai no evidence exists to indicate that the disease is contagious from ope animal to another. In the past extensive work was conducted at Wallacevilie in this connection, and every endeavour to transmit the disease to healthy animals, either by contact, inoculation or other methods, failed. " During the present outbreak similar experiments have been carried out at the laboratory, but no indication of contagion was evidenced. Further work in this direction is being pursued at Wallacevilie. " In,other countries where the disease occurs no suggestion has been made that it is in any way infective. The South African workers have never referred to such a possibility.

" Large t numbers of animals become affected, hot because they contract it from others, but because of the fact that the feed conditions which precipitate the disease are common to all animals grazing on the farm. It arises in the first instance through those conditions, and removal of stock from dangerous pastures brings about a disappearance of the disease. We have had numerous outbreaks of the disease in the North Island in past years—in some areas quite as bad as the present outbreak—yet no restriction was ever placed on movement of stock, and no evidence of transmission of the disease resulted. In view of the above facts, and of the further consideration that shipment of North Island stock has now practically ceased, I am of the opinion that it is not necessary to entertain the idea of restriction."

The reply of the Acting Minister should allav any fears that existed as to the danger of the introduction of the' disease by the transfer of stock from the North Island.

THE PIG INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GRADING OF BACONERS Notes by M. J. Scott, 8.A., B.Sc, WHAT GRADING MEANS. Everybaconer pig between the weights of 1211 b and 1801 b, wether they are for export, unexportable, or for local consumption, is now graded into one of the following classes:—No. 1, prime; No. 2. prime; No. 3, prime, second grade, or reject. This grading is compulsory under the regulations, no matter whether the pigs are bought at per lb on hooks, weight, by auction in the sale yards, or on hoof in the sty or paddock; Producers should fix this fact firmly in their minds, since some buyers, when speaking of " no grade " buying, sometimes leave the impression in the producer's mind that his pigs will not be graded at all. All baconers killed at licensed slaughtering points must be graded. GRADING STANDARDS The grading standards employed are those applied to Canadian bacon, less Hnch, where pigs are measured with a trier prior to being split down the back. The measurements taken are the thickness of bacK fat over the shoulder opposite the third vertebra and over the loin opposite the last vertebra. In addition to these measurements, prime pigs must be shapely, well finished, and free from blemishes, with firm, white fat. No direct account has been taken of length in the grading standard, but indirectly and quite effectively length is taken into consideration.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LENGTH AND BACK FAT THICKNESS There is no better related attributes of a pig than his length and the thickness of fat over the shoulder. Ever since these measurements have been made this relationship has been established and found consistently* no matter what the breed of the pig. During the months of October to December the department was supplied by the trade with measurements of about 80,000 pigs from almost every killing point in New Zealand. An analysis of these measurements shows that if our pigs are arranged in four groupsshortest, short, long, longest—with equal numbers in each class, the longest pigs are, on the average, 2J inches longer than the shortest, and 3-16 of an inch thinner on the back, This is true for all weights. The average measurements for pigs from 1201 b to 1651 b. averaging 1421 b, are as follows:

Shoulder; Length back fat inches inches. Shortest . 28.1 1 25-32 Longest ,'. 30.3 1 19-32

This means that for pigs of any weight there is, on the average, almost a certainty of getting them thinner on the back by .3-16 of an inch if their length can be increased by two inches. Since length is the only feature that can be observed or judged while the pig is alive, it is the one thing that the producer can attend to, and he would be well advised to select and use longer pigs for bacon from now on. Where some pigs are sold as pork and some as bacon, it is advisable to look them over when they have reached the 601 b carcass stage and decide then to sell the shortest for pork and keep the longest for bacon.

EMPIRE SUPPLIES HALF INCREASE SINCE OTTAWA <From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Apl. 27. The Empire provided Great Britain with 52 per cent, of her total food imports last year, compared with 38 per cent in 1931 and 55 per cent, in 1936. This is the finding of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute, at Oxford, which has made an annual analysis of the trade figures since the change in Great Britain's fiscal policy, and the Ottawa pact with the Dominions If 100 is taken as the index figure of Empire supplies in 1927-29, the corresponding figure in 1937 was 142. In the same period, the relative figure for foreign countries dropped from 100 to 79.

There was a drop last yeai of 2 per cent, in food imports (those of commodities, 28 in number, which compete most directly with British agricultural products), but it was still 12 per cent, more than in 1931 The fall in 1937 was due mainly to reduced imports of dairy produce, wheat, potatoes and fruit. Supplies of meat and eggs were slightly larger than in 1936. Eighty-one per cent, of the United Kingdom's imported mutton and lamb now comes from the Empire, as against 70 per cent in 1931. The index figure for this commodity is now 122 (100—1927-29) As to chilled beef, which comes mostly from the Argentine, the Empire share is rising. In 1931, it was less than 1 per cent., now it ,is 10 per cent., and a rise of 2 per cent, in total imports last year was due entirely to expansion of Empire supplies. Taking meat as a whole, 49 per cent, of Great Britain's imports now

comes from the Empire, as against 32 per cent in 1931. Of dairy pro ducts an even greater proportion comes from the Empire—s 6 per cent.. as against 47 per cent, in 1931. The Empire's share of other foods is Eggs, 19 per cent.; wheat and flour, 68 per cent. (84 per cent, in 1936!; vegetables. 38 per cent,: fruit, 16 per cent