AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 11

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

(Continued from page 7.)

It has been computed on the Lachlan, where immense numbers of rabbits have been poisoned and otherwise killed during the present season, that no fewer than 20,000,000 have been destroyed duriug the year in New South Wales alone.

The largest-blooded horse ranch in the world is said to be that at Greely, Colo., which Mr A. F. Wolf manages for the Studebakers and Beveral Eastern capitalists. Over 8500 acres of alfalfa grass range 4800 Percherons aud Clydesdales.

The system of cheese-making now adopted in Canada and New Zealand, the product of which has brought such satisfactory prices in the London market, was shown on April 26 at the Fresh Food and Cool Storage Company's premises. Mr Wilson, the Government dairy expert, brought over from New Zealand the necessary improved plant for the purpose, the Department of Agriculture being anxious to improve matters in this direction as soon as possible. Mr Sawers, the New Zealand Government dairy expert, who is travelling with Mr Wilson, undertook the work for the day. The Anierban method of cheesemaking, or acic system as it is called, is in general use here, whilst the system exhibited on Tuesday is what is called the vattud or Cheddar system. The vat used was the usual square-jacketed American one, into which lOOgal of milk was put. The system of bringing the milk to a proper stage of ripeness before the rennet was added Mr Wilson considered was a great improvement, as it gives the maker a thorough command of his work. TLe gang-press used and the patent moulds pressed 40 cheeses at once. These with the new curd-cutter were all considered vast improvements ; in fact, the whole operation was a great success, and it is calculated -in the opinion of the experts to enable the colony to derive as big a revenue from exported cheese as it is now doing from butter. The process was witnessed by a large number of practical men, who took great interest in it and expressed their approval. — Leader. There have been of late frequent references in the English agricultural journals to the injury inflicted on the shorthorn herds of Great Britain by the boom in Bates-bred cattle in the United States. The competition of American buyers forced the prices up to a surprising height ; but this competition was by' no means a healthy one. It was only animals bred in a certain manner and of certain colours that were run after, and the result was that the owners of other strains had to follow the fashion or remain out in the cold, so far as high prices were concerned. The excellence of the animal was altogether a secondary consideration. In-breed-ing to certain strains was more thought of than robust constitution and perfect shape. The natural result followed in the rapid degeneration of the race. The American demand ceased suddenly, and it was a fortunate thing for. the British shorthorn herds that it did so before it was too late to return to the oldfashioned system of breeding which has kept the famous shorthorn cattle of Britain in the front rank all the world over. In whatever stock, fancy breeding has had a higher value than the individual "merits of the animals and their potency as stock-producers, the effect, has been disastrous, and when of long continuance has invariably led to the decadence of the race. The relief from the thraldom imposed by the American breeders and importers is marked by the return to a more rational and intelligent system of breeding. On this subject a correspondent iv the Live Stock Journal remarks: — "The turning point was reached last week, when at Her Majesty the Queen's sale at Windsor the Earl of Feversham, the owner of one of the best Bates herds in the world, paid lOOOgs for a Scotch-bred bull which has a pedigree intrinsically good, but the crosses in which have not been put on in thecut-and-dried method that some time ago would alone have been looked at by the best class of foreign or home purchasers. . . . Still, to prove the change that has occurred, it may be recalled that eight years ago a leading live-stock authority in Scotland, writing of cattle similarly bred, inaccurately remarked that they were ' not truebred, being of the mixed Aberdeenshire sort,' while the then champion of the 'purists' in England flouted these cattle by saying that they were bred like Cleveland Bay thoroughbreds." Those stockbreeders who adhere strictly to breeding by pedigree, and can see no good but in a few strains of blood, have not yet leaijned the A B C of the art of live-stock husbandry. The Warrnambool Standard says that since the opening of the three Western district rabbit factories last month nearly half a million of rabbits have been canned.

We (Mark Lane Express) learn from the Swedish newspapers that the 32 county veterinary surgeons in Sweden, who are paid by the Government, have petitioned the King of Sweden to grant them increased pay. The authorities to whom the matter has been re-

ferred seem to have treated the petition favourably. It is urged that the development of veterinary surgery during the last decade necessitates increased studies and expense in the purchase of books, surgical instruments, &c, and a country like Sweden, which exports such a. large number of cattle, sheep, and pigs, as well as dairy produce, iniist have veterinary surgeons of the highest and most modern qualifications.