NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3433, 30 December 1919, Page 10

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

On ma.ny occasions during' the year the writer has in different ways stressed the fact that., in respect to the output of c-ur primary pro-dues, wo wewa going backwards. In th© value, perhaps, there is apparently an increase, but in volume, n-c—and. it is quantity we require. The reader can ponder on the following items during tbs holidays;—lt is estimated that there is a decrease in the wheat area this season in comparison with last season <cf 67,000 acres, a decrease in the oat area of 77,000 acres, or, if they yield an average return per acre equivalent to last season there will b* a lower return by approximately 2,000,000 bushels of wheat and 2,500,000 bushels, of oats. The Dominion sheep numbers, including lambs, at 30th April, 1918, were 26,538,302,. and at same date this year 25,828,554. The estimated lambing was been so near the actual number during the past few years that one may accept this season’s lambing as approximately correct. In 1918 the estimated lambing was 10,610,0-75, and this season th© of Agriculture’s Inspector of Stack’s estimate is 9,480,662 —-which is loss by ewer a million lambs than the actual lambing last season, which even compared badly with the years 1917 and 1916. Wool product i&n for the Dominion for .12 months ending June 30 totalled 630.972 bales. This season the wool clip is admittedly light in. comparison, and it may not be an overestimate to put this down at 7 per cent, reduction on the total output. Pigs show a reduction of 23,472 at 30th January, 1919, compared with 1918. Cattle and dairy cows show some im-

Greater Production Necessary.

provement in numbers, but, as against tha*, we have commenced this season under adverso climatic conditions, and the cheese ajad butter made to date is probably not up to the usual. Under a call to increase the output of primary products, the foregoing may servo as a spur to stimulate our commercial business "men to assist producers to their utmost during the incoming, year. Wo suggest that there are many ways in which assistance could bo given. The price of wheat should be determined fc? a p«rioa of years ahead if price-nxing is attempted at all. The space available at freezing works should be generallv known at least fortnightly throughout the killing season. The anomalous 'position of hides should be unravelled, and, generally, eyes should bo turned to country bterestfl rather than to municipal enterprises, etc., etc.

A cable received from on the 21st December is of more than passing interest. It reads as follows: —“Judge Palmer has announced that the ‘Big Five’ pocking interests have consented to sell all their _ holdings in public stockyards, stockyard railroad*, stock market newspapers, and public cold storage warehouses, and forever to dissociate themselves from the retail meat business and wholesale grocery and canning business. The packers have submitted to the Government an injunction forbidding the monopolisation ot food products in tire United States., ino concerns a,(footed are: Armour, Ivloms, Swift, Wilson, and Cudahy, and Main subsidiary companies.” The sinister influence exercised by’ the American Beef Trust Is no figment of the imagination. The magnitude ci their control is so far-reaching that they could make the market, or mar' it. as best suited them. It is alleged that the cattueraiser “ out west ’ ’ might refuse the price offered him at his nearest market and attempt a sale further on; but the trust were ahead of him, and fixed the quotation there just the same, and the seller could take it or leave it, and, of course, had to take it. Onoe the American stock-raisers were lassooed, the Trust turned to outside markets. Over 25 years ago they established connections in the Smithfield marker, and absorbed the smaller concerns, and today "practically set the pace in the meat trade "in Britain. The Empire Mail-declares that net only is the consumer being plundered, but that the Trust’s operations have far-reaching effects- upon the agriculture, industry, and commerce of the country. A case is cited where the English Board of Agriculture has been fooled by the American Beef Trust, and the fact that an embargo on the admission of cattle for slaughter from the Argentine is maintained at the Ports of ■Hentford and Birkenhead while Avonmouth and Cardiff are said to be left open is proof that this is so. The two first-named ports are the only two suitable slaughtering centres, and the trade is consequently strangled. The embargo is professedly to avoid risk of importing disease, and it is argued by the writer that the board are acting under' the powerful _ interest of the Trust. Certainly it is obvious enough that if disease is to be feared it is certain that it can be imported at one point as well as at another, and that all ports, if Sny, should be closed. That the Government and the Trust between them have been netting enormous profits on meat imports cannot, of course, be disproved. The incompleteness of the embargo suggests that the risk of importing disease is nob the sole reason why the Board oi Agriculture took ilio aolion alleged. If the Irusfc is giving up business at its source, it is to be hoped that its Vamifications i outside America will dry up, and’permit the Empire to develop in its own way in the interests of both ■ producers and consumers.

The allPowerful Trust.

A step lias been taken by the Food Controller at Home winch will pleas© both Home producers of beef and mutton and; oversea exporters, as well as consumers. An order which, was to come into force on the 12th Novemj-, fM v entitled “ Imported Meat (Labelling) Order.” under which imported meat must be labelled bv retail butchers when sold or exposed for sale, and when delivered at customers’ premises. Where cuts or joints of imported meat are exposed for- sale they will bo sufficiently labelled if they are exposed on a slab or counter, which heap m a conspicuous position the prescribed label The proscribed label must have the word “imported” or “imported meat clearty printed upon it. This is a matter which farmers’ associations have been hammering' at for years, but all in vain. how the labelling of foreign meat is incumbent on the seller to the extent of attaching a label or card when delivering meat to customers. This is as it should bo in fairness to producers and consumers, and thS wonder is why it is not demanded here.

Imported Meat must be' Labelled.

The manager of £he Condoholin Demonstration .Farm (N.S.W.) renorts that the method adopted of ringing and poisoning green timber at the farm has been very successful. The trees were rung very low with a frill, and immediately there was poured into the cut a solution of arsenic and soda . Tins was made by boiling together 2lb of white arsenic. 41b of ordinary washing soda, and sgal of water until all was completely dissolved. Tho liquid was distributed by the use of water cans with specially-made long spouts, having the exit hole about the size of No £ wire. This work was done by days labour at a. total cost of Is 5d per acre. This must bo considered', very low. as the country was fairly heavily timbered.- and the wag os paid were from Is to Is 6 2 d per hour. The timber has ali died, and mostly within 49 hours from the time of ringing. ' AGRIOOH? HAM AND BACON. HAS THE MEAT TRUST GOT CONTROL? (Feom Otm Own Coebespondent.) 49 WELLINGTON, December 22 In reference to the shortage of bacon and ham, a local authority says pigs are now almost as valuable as fat cattle were a few years ago; £lO can now be got for a pig, but it is claimed that it docs not pay- to buy at such a price. The merchant referred to suggested that the inflated prices are due to the operations of the Meat Trust, and stated that the farmers were selling their pigs to somebody who was willing to pay the inflated prices. A peculiar fact is' that for some time past pigs have been in exceptionally good demand, but no ham or bacon is available. Ho concluded that the Meat Trust had secured control, and that prices would be further increased later on when tho trust had seemed complete control.

Puisonlng Green Timber, j