NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1672, 8 December 1883, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Pleuro-pneumonia appears to exist in New South Wales, although not to any serious extent, and some cases are said to have been met with on the Victorian side of the border. In Victoria however, the inspectors of stock are very properly armed with the necessary authority to check the spread of the disease. If the owner of the affected beasts will not consent to the destruction of the animals, they can be quarantined until all danger of infection is over, in New South Wales, unfortunately, the inspectors have no power to enforce any preventive measuie.-s; and if the owner of a herd of infected cattle chooses to drive them through clean country, at the imminent risk of spreading the disease, there is no law to prevent him. The Melbourne Weekly Times says that rumours are also current to the effect that tuberculosis has broken out in some cattle in the neighbourhood of Yackandandah, but no authentic information on the subject has yet come to hand.

Judge Jones, one of the best authorities on shorthorns in America, and a frequent and valued contributor to the London Live Stock Journal, places the claim of the shorthorn for premier position amongst cattle, as we iQueenslauder) think, very fairly. He does not contend that the shorthorn of the present day is either the best beef producer or best for the dairy; but he does claim that the crowning merit of the shorthorn in its early days was that she was a dairy cow, and that in times gone by the shorthorn possessed a combination of excellence of which no other breed could boast. Mr Jones argues that by continued careful selection these excellence?) can be reestablished and maintained. If a breeder neglects the milking qualities, his cattle will in a few generations be deficient in this important property, and of course their progeny will be the same. This is what has happened with the shorthorns. They have been bred solely as beef -producers, and iv this respect they have been surpassed by other breeds. Bring them back to their old form, and, as " all round " thrifty cattle, valuable alike for the grazier and dairyman, they cannot be surpassed. They will not equal the best beef-producers, such as the Heretoid and Aberdeen polls, nor will they come up to the Ayrshires and others as dairy cattle ; but, on the other hand, they will excel the best beef-producing varieties at the dairy, whilst they will be vastly superior to Ayrshires and all other purely dairy cattle as beef-producers. Particulars are to hand by last mail of the salo of a large draft from the Holker herd of the Duke of Devonshire, the great English home of . the pure Bates shorthorns, the fountain head of the Duchesses and Oxfords, which have been so successfully blended by Mr Drewery, the able manager of the herd. But what a falling-off in prices as compared with former yeais ! No four figures are recorded at this sale ; where thousands were paid at the sale in 1878 only hrndreds were forthcoming at the sale on 6th September last. Thirty-one cows averaged £182 18a O.fd, and thirteen bulls £112 7s ; the average of the forty-four being £162 Is l.^d, as against an average of £664 at the last iiolker sale. The highest priced cow was Grand Duchess of Oxford 49th, 555 guineas, and the average of eleven Oxford females was £326 18.i 7d. The highest priced bull was Baron Oxford 16th, 200 guineas.

A week after the Holker sale there occurred a great event in the country of the black-skins. On the 13th September the herd of Aberdeen polled cattle belonging to Mr R. 0. Auld, Bridge-end of Alford, Aberdeenshire, was disposed of. Mr Auld, it will be remembered, is nephew of the late Mr M'Combie, of Tillyfour, and managed the Tillyfour herd for several years prior to the death of his uncle. At the dispersion of his uncle's herd Mr Auld purchased the famous cow Pride of Aberdeen 9th for 270 guineas, which at that time was the highest pries ever paid for a polled Angus beast. After having got three calves from this cow she was sold at the late sale for 385 guineas. A yearling heifer, Pride of Aberdeen 30th, brought the remarkable price of 510 guineas, the highest price ever yet, paid for a polled animal in Scotland. Another Pride of Aberdeen brought 250 guineas. Five of this favourite tribe reached an average of £310 16a. Twelve cows realised an average of 109J guineas ; eleven two-year-old heifers 90§ guineas ; eight yearling heifers 148£ guineas ; seven heifer calves 86 guim as ; and thirteen bulls 31$ guineas. Five of the females, including the highest priced, go to America, and two to New Zealand. The average of the 51 head reached £90 16s 3id.

Whilst the Holker and Bridge-end sales were creating great excitement amongst shorthorn and black- polled breeders, the Hereford men were all excitement over the dispersion of the far-famed Leen herd of Herefords, the property of Mr P. Turner, who has retired from < business. _ The prices made at this sale wore most satisfactory to the owner. It was the best sale of Herefords ever held, with the exception of Mr B. Tomkin's, which took place in 1819. The number of breeding animals sold was 117, averaging £76 Os 9d. Mr Culbertson, U.S.A., was the purchaser of the noted and fashionable sire The Grove 3rd (5051) for whom he paid £850 10s. Considering the wonderful stock got by this bull the. price was not high, although it is the highest price ever yet paid for a Hereford. The next highest, £700, was paid by W. G. Morgan, U.S.A., for Rudolph, a sou of The Grove, a short time ago. The cows and calves averaged £6S 17s. The bulls averaged £109.

On looking over the Tasmanian sheep prior to the late sale here, breeders will have naturally asked themselves the question, "In what respect are these sheep superior to our own?" It was certainly not in weight of fleece ; nor were they, as a rule, better covered over the whole of the body than the sheep of many of our best stud flocks. A close inspection, however, revealed the fact that the type was remarkable for its uniformity of character. Look wherever one might, whether on the shoulder, breech, belly, or top-knot, the same character prevailed throughout. Although varying as to fineness, every fibre of wool was of the purely Tasmanian type. This, in the case of stud shoep, ia a matter of momentous importance. Weight and length of staple can be secured by any breeder who knows his business, bj.t qnalifey and character can only be

reproduced— cannot be originated.—Queenslander.

In anjarticle on " The Agricultural Outlook" a Canterbury contemporary makes the following remarks on New Zealand asa wheat-grow-ing country i—lti — It must be admitted that, as a wheat exporting country, we labour under serious disadvantages. Our production is not large enough to allow of the moat economical system of handling the grain. The uncertain nature of our climate, too, which is to a large extent the making of the country for grazing purposes, tells against us -heavily as wheat producers. We grow large average yields, but there is no certainty as to the quality of the grain. During one season our wheat may be almost or quite equal to anything that finds its way into the English market, while during another year it may be so damaged so as to be scarcely saleable. In other countries where the farmers are almost confined to wheat growing alone, notably in the great wheat-growing territories of America, although the average yields are small there is more certainty about the quality of the produce. New Zealand farmers, in spite of the misfortunes which occasionally overtake them, have no cause to envy the lot of farmers in tlie United States, Australia, or anywhere else ; but New Zealand will never take a front rank, even in a small way, as a wheat-exporting country, and the time is probably not far distant when our production of wheat will be confined, or nearly so, to the wants of our own population.

In an article in the Canterbury Weekly Press, Mr W. Bovvron makes the following remarks on the advisability of establishing small dairy factories throughout the Colony :—: — The plan which I wish to suggest is one which has been adopted lately with much success in the chief butter producing countries of Europe and in America — viz,, the establishment of small factories in all the principal dairying districts. These factories can be worked on one of two plans : the farmer can skim tbe milk at home and send the cream to the factory every day, and there it would of course be churned fresh and sweet each day ; or, on the other plan which most decidedly is the better, the milk would be taken fresh to the factory, and there the cream would be at once extracted by means of the centrifugal cream extractors, and within six hours of the cows having been milked the cream would have been obtained and turned into such butter that could not be beaten. By means of the centrifugal cream extractors iully 10 per cent, more cream is obtained than in the ordinary method, and this alone should pay all working expenses. The skim milk could be taken away in due' proportion by each farmer as the new milk is brought in. Factories of this sort, I estimate, would cost but very little ; f i om four to five hundred pounds would be sufficient to put up a suitable building, and furnidh all the necessary appliances for carrying it out on a large scale. Beyond this a very small capital would suffice, as, of course, no stock would be required to be kept, since the sooner shipped the better it would be. The Butter made would, therefore, be shipped by each steamer, if not previously sold. If it were desired 1 have no doubt that a ready market would be found here for all such butter, for I know personally merchants who would be glad to contract for large quantities of butter made on this principle, and at a good price. So highly is this cream extractor thought of in Europe, that the Danish Government recent y voted £7000 for the purpose of establishing a factory to teach the proper use of the machine, and the art of making fine butter. Earl Fitzhardinge, for the benefit of his tenantry, has built at a cost of £4000, in the vale of Berkeley, a butter and cheese factory. Last summer the bntter from this factory was contracted for at Is 5d per lb, and in winter at Is 7d per lb. Ireland also is waking up from her old-fashioned methods, and is making rapid progress in the right direction, mainly through the efforts of the Rev. Canon Bagot and Mr Charles Thompson, directors of the nducational Dairy, Dublin. • This establishment was introduced for the purpose of training dairymaids in the newest and most approved systems. The butter turned out from this factory has been selling in Dublin at Is Sd per lb. I have by me a most interesting and instructive account of the operations of this establishment, and shall be glad to give it in a future number of your valuable paper. And now, when all other countries are moving ahead and adopting new and improved systems, surely New Zealand, with the grandest prospects of any country in the world tor the production of dairy produce, will not bo left behind; and this we most assuredly shall be unless the factory system is properly adopted. With her wonderfully rich grazing laud New Zealand could easily export sufficient dairy produce in five or six years to pay off the whole of her national debt. I do hope that some of our well-to-do Canterbury farmers will take the matter up with spirit, and have k tested ; it only wants a fair start, and the success will be so great that the Island will soon be covered with factories. I shall be glad to render all assistance in my power for the furtherance of this object, either by further correspondence with any of your readers, or by any other means suggested, which might bear fruit. Ti.e main point is to get our farmers awakened to see their own interests, that point once obtained we shall move ahead at a rapid rate.