NOTES FOR STOCKOWNEKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 14

NOTES FOR STOCKOWNEKS.

(Australasian.) Mr Robert Clarke. Bolindavale, writes: — In your issue of the 6th inst. three items appeared in your " Yeomanry " columns which, being subjects that I am particularly interested in. attracted my attention, and if you will allow me space in your valuable paper I would like to give my views and experience on these matters. BOGUS BIDDING. The first is written by " R. D." on " Bogus Bidding." This matter should be taken up by all sellers and buyers, with the view of suppressing the same. I must say the seller is quite as much or more to blame than the

auctioneer. There is no doubt some auctioneers are very clever in "trotting," or leading on a buyer, but a man of experience soon sees this, afterwards bidding cautiously and not so high as he would if he knew he was not being run. Sellers also have men to run up their stock unknown to the auctioneer, and should the latter not do this trotting business they will go to another, so the auctioneers are placed in a very awkward position; but at the same timo those who sell and put down trotting- have always the respect and confidence of gopd buyers. Why do not auctioneers form a club, and make a rule that trotting shall not be allowed? Then let the Government take the matter up, and pass an act requiring all Irayers to bid stiaight out by voice, doing away with winking, nodding, and other signs, or the auctioneer to name the bidder each hid. Owners can protect themselves by putting a reserve price on their stock, and should the bidding not come up to their valuation, the auctioneer could state the reserve price after the last bid.- There is another thing. Some sellers instruct their auctioneer to run their horses up to a price considerably over their value, so the seller can say when selling privately they were offered for a horse, say, £300 at auction, when he may not have had a genuine offer over £200. All this should be put down by the agents. The Government should pass a stringent act, making the penalty very heavy for infringement of same. All agents should be responsible for their auctioneers. j SPAYING CATTLE. I The second item is with reference to spay- ] ing cattle, written by Dr Quinnell, veterin- j ary inspector, Queensland. He states that j a large proportion of the spayed cows sent to one of the meat-freezing works- were condemned as sufferers from tuberculosis. He also states that cleanliness on the part of the operator is a most important point, and I fully endorse his remarks with regard to this. 'I have spayed a large number of cows, and always wash my hands in hot water, drying them well, after each operation. Last year we sold a number of spayed cows and fat bullocks at the Melbourne markets, and two spayed cows were condemned as beino- tuberculous, though they were very fat. This caused me to think over the matter, and I came to the conclusion that, after spayinsf, the heifers had a touch of inflammation, which sometimes occurs after the operation. Dr Quinnell says the disease was confined to the abdominal cavity, and a close exami- ; nation revealed that tubercules were seated 1 either in the wound caused by spaying, or in its immediate vicinity. This strengthens my opinion that the spayed cows were not , suffering from tuberculosis, but from the after-effects of inflammation. If these cows j were suffering from tuberculosis the disease | would have spread, and not remained in one part only of the body. This part, as a rule, ' is not the first place the disease attacks the beast. I know a large number of professional men call all ailments, such as lumps, tumours, and other little things animals are subject to, tuberculosis. This may be so, but I have my doubts about it. I think all diseased cattle should be condemned, both on the estates where they are grazing and In the slaughter yards. Sometimes meat is condemned with very little the matter with ; it. Our Government should have stock ! boards all over the colony, the same as New | South Wales, with experienced inspectors under them. The board being an honorary one, the cost to the Government would be very little. The benejit to producers and consumers alike would be great, having long-ex-perienced stockowners looking after the health of, and everything in connection with, stock. I think myself, although we have a good Government in power just now, like j all other Governments, they do not give stockowners and breeders the help and consideration due to them. See what the breeders do for the colony in supplying milk, butter, clothing, and shoe leather? Take the butter industry. What large dimensions it is attaining — one of the very things that will bring our grand little colony to the front — and consider what a large amount of money is being spent annually by stockowners in improving their stock. I suggest the Government should take the election of stock boards and good experienced inspectors consideration. This could be done with very little trouble and expense, and the benefit to the colony would be great. STRINGHALT IN HORSES. The third item- mentioned is stringhalt in horses. The veterinary surgeon of New South Wales, in his annual report, says ■" stringhalt is a parasitical disease." I beg to differ. My experience in this — lasting over 20 years, a large number of cases coming under my direct observation — convinces me that stringhalt is caused by horfces eating yellow weed, known as dandelion weed. I will tjive my reasons. Some years ago I gave one of our paddocks a rest by keeping all sheep out of it. When the feed was good (the grass containing 1 a quantity of yellow weed), we put 20 horses in, I think, about December, and in February nearly every horse had stringhalt in a bad form. We removed them into sheep paddocks — some on the '-Keilor Plains — and within three months every horse had recovered, and although we have between 500 and 600 horses on the estate, there has been no case of stringhalt (but one) where the horses run in sheep paddocks. Sometimes our working hordes get a touch of it, because, after shearing, the horse paddock having no sheep running in it, the yellow weed flourishes. We finish shearing about the first week in November, the horses showing slight symptoms in February. In that month we turn some sheep in, and the J slringhalt disappears. One of my neighbours i had his horses very bad with stringhalt, when he turned them on the roads. They got all right, although there was very little grass for them to eat, but no yellow weed. On the Keilor Plains there is very little, if any, j yellow weed, and a horse never fails to get i cured there. The horses in this district never \ contract stringhalt until February, showing • the disease cannot be caused by parasites. 1 Springtime, we stockmen argue, the young I grass purges the hoise nearly, or quite so, of worms. A horse suffering from stringhalt has a . wasting of the muscles, and, sometimes, , knuckling at the joints. The only cure is } to remove them to country having no yellow i weed, or put them into sheep paddocks. The one case I mentioned above of stringhalt occurring in one of our horses running in a sheep paddock I accoimt for by the animal having for sire what is called a "nerved" horse.