NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS

Otago Witness, Issue 3726, 11 August 1925, Page 12

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS

The Government has decided to turn down the request of the New Herd Testing Zealand Co-operative Herdof Milk. testing Association ot Hamilton for a subsidy of Is per cow on the grounds that the Department of Agriculture already does a good deal of herd-testing work, and that there are others who would also want a subsidy. Then, too. the question arises as to how far the revenue of the Dominion should be used to assist individuals to improve their incomes. In the circumstances, perhaps the Prohibition Party would help the movement along, as they must have milk to drink. Since prohibition was enacted in America milk has become the national drink, the consumption of which in 1919 was given as 53 gallons per head, and is increasing at the rate of nine gallons per head per annum. In Britain the consumption of milk is only 22 gallons per head per annum. If Britain’s consumption, through pasteurisation or otherwise, was raised to 23 gallons per head per annum, there would not be left in the country enough milk to supply the increasing demand.

Writing of the sheep dog displays at Wembley, a correspondent Sheep Doos at in The Times says: "In Wembley. its suggestion of peacefulness, if in no other respect, the scene is like a hillside or a farm pasturage. The arena is empty save for a few posts round the sides, a few gates in the middle to form a pen, a flock of Scotch mountain and Cheviot sheep, four dogs, and a magician. The magician is said to be Mr James Scott, of Hawick, but we are almost persuaded that his real name is Prospero, to which his control of so-called brute nature entitles him, no less than his fine stature, his long beard, and his flowing robe. He has also a magic wand, but that he seldom uses. • Ihe weapons of his art are a kind of hissing whisper, which carries far on the air, and a whistle, only occasionally shrilled. By a motion, of tne hand he sends the dogs on his diverse errands, and by another motion he checks them in full career and brings them to rest on the turf. They are quite dumb; they never bark; and rarely does any sound mar the silence except the hissing whisper. Remembering the yells which accompanied the Rodeo, last year’s conflict between man and animal, one realises the difference between pandemonium and a pastoral. The sheep seem tame enough under this skilled discipline ; but, indeed, it is not since their feet were on their native heatn, and once or twice yesterday afternoon they showed a spirit of wild adventure that carried magnificent conviction. The first time was when a fellow from the mountains went through all the motions of butting at a dog. The second and greater moment saw two escaping prisoners bounding up the long flight of wooden steps that leads to the topmost corridor of tne Stadium. The dog turned to the left along a lower platform to cut them off, only to lose himself among the crags that are of man’s making. Mr Scott himself then climbed the steps, and brought back the wanderers, which, judging from a sudden appearance on the summit, had already been arrested by a policeman. These attempts at rebellion did not mar the general subordination, which must strike town-bred folk as little short of miraculous. As long as the sheep do as they are somehow told, the dogs lie at full length. The moment they stray an inch from tho path 3f obedience, or Prospero lifts a mysteriqva hand, a creeping guardian is upon t track, compelling them to the m fetor’s will. The flocks were driven between the posts round the area, just as they would be driven to safety round a precipice or on the steep bank of a stream. They were collected, they were segregated, they were penned, and this or that sheep was ‘ shed ’ from its companions. The dogs were invariably alert, missing, nothing, and ready for anything. Their obedience was instant and inevitable, their gentleness as remarkable as their silence. These Border collies, the finest of working sheep dogs f are of Mr Scott’s training, and have evidently received tho best of education. But nobody can watch their exhibition without wondering at their natural intelligence. The Stadium, pretend as ho may, is not a hillside, and must b© strange to them. Nor are the sheep collaborators in a game, since Mr A. D. Hart, of Andoversford, is supplying a different flock each day. The display is one of natural talent developed to the host advantage; and it provides a delightful hour for those who do not seek for very high excitement.”

To get the best results from nil kinds of domesticated live stock, it is Feeding very desirable that the atHortes. tenannt should know something about the anatomy of tho animals, and this applies particularly to the structure of the stomach and tho process of digestion. Take the horse, for okample. How many owners are tliero (ask* an expert) who realise that while the horse’s stomach has n capacity of only 16 quarts, thnt of an ox has 250? In the ir> testines this proportion is reversed, tho horse having a capacity of 190 quart*, against 100 of tho ox. The ox ar.a most all other animals have a gall

four times its weight of saliva. Now, the stomach to digest it well, will contain but about 10 quarts, and when the animal eats about one-third of his daily ration, or seven pounds in one and a-half hours, he has swallowed at least two stomachfuls of hay and saliva, one of these having passed to the intestines. Observation has shown that the food is passed to the intestines by the stomach in the order in which it is re-' ceived. If we feed a horse with six quarts of oats, it will just fill his stomach, and if, as soon as he finishes this, we feed him with the above ration of 71b of hay, he will eat sufficient in three-quarters of an hour to have forced the oats entirely out of his stomach into the intestines. As it is, the office of the stomach to digest the nitrogenous parts of the feed, and as a stomach of oats contains four or five times as much of these as the amount of hay, it is certain that either the stomach must secrete the gastric juice five times as fast, which is hardly possible, or it must retain this food five times as long. By feeding the oats first it can only bp retained long enough for the proper digestion of hay, consequently it seems logical, when feeding a concentrated food like oats with a bulky one like hay, to feed the latter first, giving the grain the whole time between the repasts to be digested. The digestion of the horse is governed by the same laws as that of a man, and as we know that it is not best for a man to go at hard work the moment a hearty meal is eaten, so we should remember that a horse ought to have a rest, after his meal while the stomach is most active in the process of digestion.

W alee up! Some of our breed associations should “get a move on” and • 5,,” endeavour to push the merits Associations. of their herds> .... flocks ,nt » the limelight. V le les,an n,en set a fine example while the Jersey men also merit approbation, l.hese two breeds are forging ahead, thanks to some enthusiasts who leave nothing to chance, but furnish the press, through their publicity officers, with arresting items concerning the doings of their cattle throughout the Empire. One finds these butter-fat and milky cattle usurping the country which might well increase the fame of, say, the milking Shorthorn or the Rod Polls; but the breeders of the two last-mentioned breeds appear content to do nothing much in their own interests in the Dominion. Outside of New Zealand breeders with an eye on the export, trade are for over pushing their animals into the foreground, realising that they cannot afford to do nothing in the circumstances. Some day in the not distant future America. Australia, and foreign countries will come our way for their purebred sheep, cattle, pigs, and Uydosdalo horses. It is only by well-con-sidered propaganda, together with improvlng the quality of our purc-hreeds, that New Zealand will get a “look in,” hut a “look in” will not suffice to furnish the gofxis. They must be on the spot, and made known to likely outside buyers if the shekels are to ootno our way. The position is much the same in regard to sheep. Some owners realise the position and others do nothing,,and get left.

DAIRYINC INDUSTRY. riiUDUCTION IN AUCKLAND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, August 3. A substantial falling off in production took place, as was to oe expected, in the first month of the official dairying season in the Auckland district. The receipts at the grading stores were 5326 boxes of butter, compared with 14,435 boxes m July, 1924—a decrease of 9109 boxes. There was also a drop in cheese figures, although the decline was not so great as in butter. The receipts at the grading stores last month totalled 889 crates, as against 933 for a similar period of last veal* —a decrease of 44 crates. The cheese returns would probably be carried over from the end of last season, and figures have little significance as far as the new season’s operations are concerned. In regard to butter returns, the figures for July do not afford a reliable basis on which to estimate the season’s prospects. The production for the month is limited to farmers, who milk all the year round, and the seasonal conditions are an important factor this year. The recurring floods in June and July in the Bay of Plenty, Thames Valley and Waikato districts rendered winter milking to any extent an impossibility. The effect of the floods was widespread, and any sound estimate of the season’s prospects, in regard to dairying production will be impossible until well into the spring.

HERD-TESTING. GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY SOUGHT. 'WELLINGTON, August 4. A deputation from the New Zealand Co-operative Herd-testing Association, of Hamilton, recently asked the Minister of Agriculture for a Government subsidy of Is per cow. The Minister has intimated that the Government cannot see its way to give a subsidy, on the ground that much herdtesting work is being done by the department, and others quite apart from the association. If a subsidy were given to one body it would have to be given to others as well. Apart from this the question was involved of the extent to which the revenue of the dominion should be used to assist individuals to improve their income.