MENACE TO DAIRYING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10303, 10 March 1905, Page 3

MENACE TO DAIRYING.

A SERIOUS TROUBLE,

A trouble lluit is causing considerable apprenhension amongst the more observant of local dairy-farmers (says the Waimate Witness) is that of the increasing number of cases, of animals suffering from inflammation of the teals. The inflammation is caused by a- microbe that is well known to pathology, and one that is most destructive m character. The symptoms are : Hard lumps appearing on the tents and the collor and) quality of the milk extracted, the latter being thick, or "mattery." The effect is the gradual closing of the teat and! quarter, /in' (m ab,odss -forming, thus m tiftne making the cow worthless as a milker. It is but nine months since the disease was first noticed m. Taranaki, and, indeed, we are informed) on the best authority, m the colony generally. Now, quite. 15 per cent, of the herds of South Tara.naki are affected, whilst m the Wairoa (East Coast) district the proportion is about 25 per cent. Tine outbreak is a very serious matter to dkiiry-farmers and to the colony generally, for, from all accounts, the disease is spreading rapidly without much being done to combat it. One cow affected' with tlie inflammation can transmit it to a* whole herd, not, however, by itself, but by the agency of the hands of the milker, who, up to iioav, any rate, is generally unconscious of the existence oi the disease m an animal.

The Pathological Department have been acquainted! with the outbreak, but though recommendations respecting it have been madte to the Minister for Agriculture by the said Department, nothing has been or is being done to suppress it. We have taken the trouble to report to Mr Gilrubh, head of the Department, upon the matter. He recommends that farmers shpulcl watch the animals closely for indications of the disease and to take care that the cows suffering m this way be left till the last to milk, while the milkers should be made to wash their hands with nn antiseptic wash during their operations. The <lisea.se, Mr GiJruth says, can be eradicated by syringing boric acid, made into a solution of, say, lay. to the point of water, up the affected teat.

We have said that the disease is a serious thing for the colony, and it is m this way, that were i!t (o be bruited about' tli* Old! Country that the butter being put on the market there came from a country where 15 to 20 per cent, of the dairy cows were affected with the disease — andi our competitors would not miss a point of discrediting our produce, as what has already transpired/ m this connection goes to prove— our butter and cheese would' receive a check from which it would: take a particularly long time to recover. It has been proved that ihe teat inflammation germ is not killed during the process of nutter or cheese-mak-ing. And thus the butter or cheese made from milk taken from a cow affected with infllatnmation is full of these microbes, which, we have it on Mr Gilruth's authority, are similar to the bacilli responsible for diphtheritic and! sore throats m human beingsi. Mr Gilruth recently succeeded m isolating a sore throat microbe, and found it to be identical with the gerai of teat inflammation. The danger of not grappling .adequately with the outbreak, is therefore; obvious to the meanest intelligence, but anyone possessing a knowledge of the workings of the Agricultural Department is not surprised at the "masterly inactivity" shown m thils very important instance.

Mr Gilruth lftis not a free hand m his work. He makes a report ; the report is taken charge of by the Secretary for Agriculture, who, m turn, transmits it to the Minister for the Department (Mr Duncan), who turns to the Premier for advice. What circumlocution! Still, that is the way the Agricultural Department is run. The consequence is that the work of (he Pathological Department is very seriously hampered. It has been so all along, as witness the sterilising of bonedust, over M-liicb the Government liave gone quite against Mr Gilruth. We hope, however, the Government will, m the light of what is taking place m respect of the inflammation) trouble, show a. more zealous desire to stamp out a disease which is just a.s baneful as either those of anthrax or blackleg.

Plie average city man is not "up" m the matter of manual labor, and has crude idbas regarding- the amount of sweat involved m agricultural' pursuits. The other day (says Truth's Wellington, correspondent) a citizen advertised for lenders fo* grubbing 20 acres of gorse, and received a shoal of replies, the prices asked for ranging from £485 to £8 ! He accepted! the £8 tender, and! the two young m eu , ruo .^nt it called! on him/ armed themselves with grubbers, and set out to slay the gorse m short order. The owner of the land 1 said £8 was an absurd price', and that lie would give them £20. Accordingly, they set to work one morning, and) m the afternoon called on the owner and announced that they had blisters on, their hands, and that they wouldi not grub the gorse for £100,000. lliey are not hankering after agricultural pursuits any longer.

Carious stones are being related of Boea-s who, before going on commando m the late war, hid their treasure m all nwnner of wcret places. The most favored hiding phoes were und<Tneath tiie floors, and m the walls of houses, iv gardens, and beneath the kraals of native servants, aud it is computed that many bags of gold and notes thus hidden htill lie where they were deposited by their owners. There were many exburghwrs who, on their retmm. lionie. found the secret of the hiding place bid gone with the death of the wife, while scores of wives, particularly those of prisoners of war, had permanently disappeared with the treasure. Successful applications for divorce are the sequel to most of, these disappearances. One Boer after a long search, found tlie £5000 he had placed for safety m the vicinity of a. kraal, of which not a trace was 'left, and where the ground Iwid already been turned over. A woman who hid m bottles notes to the value of over £1000, found the bottles, but all that, remained of her treasure were particles of white dust. White ants had, after devouring the corks, got into the bottles and consumed the notes. This recalls the recent case of the Paris couple who luid all their savings, m the shape -of securities, devoured by rats.