FACTS ABOUT MILK.

Southland Times, Issue 19500, 14 March 1925, Page 12

FACTS ABOUT MILK.

THE MEASURE OF VALUE. The measure of value in milk is the butter-fat which it contains. It must not be supposed that there is only one kind of this butter-fat. Butter is really a mixture of six or eight distinct kinds of fat, though three kinds make up nine-tenths of it. These are known as olein, stearin and palmitin. The olein is liquid at ordinary temperature, while the others ire solids. Soon after calving there is a larger proportion of the soft olein, while later, or when on dry food, the proportion of the harder fats increases. Of course, as the fats are lighter that the other solids, they separate from the rest when permitted to stand alone or when whirled in a separator. With slight variations a cowin good health will make milk with pretty much the same per cent, of fat in it, no matter what she is fed. When you see how the fat is put into the milk by the cow (says London Live Stock Journal), you will see how reasonable this is. If it were taken out of the blood without any after change, of course the richer the food the richer would be the milk. Food will affect the character of the milk-fat. For example, linseed meal will give a soft, oily fat, while cottonseed meal, wheat, bran, or pea meal give a hard solid fat. Milk kept under ordinary conditions is short-lived; that is changes which make it unfit for human food rapidly set in if it be left to itself. This is true of all very soluble foods—those which contain large amounts of water and are loosely put together. When milk is first drawn it is slightly alkaline—the reverse of acid. Almost at once, however, the milk begins to change. Minute germs, which enter the milk after it comes from the cow, begin their work; fermentation sets in; the milk becomes acid or “sours.” The sugar changes first, then the cheesy matter, and then the fats. All schemes for keeping milk or prolonging its life are based on the plan of first keeping the bacteria or germs out of it, and then keeping it in such condition that these germs cannot develop. The stable, the cow, the milker, the pail, and the can must be perfectly clean. The germs hide and breed in dirt. As the milk comes from the cow it contains “cowy” or animal odours, which are various gases dissolved in the milk. Aeration, or airing, means blowing these gases out of the milk, and this can be quickly done by blowing pure air through it or letting it trickle in a thin stream over the surface of a cooler. A cooler is a hollow metal box of varying shape. On the inside cold water is kept running, while over the outside the milk runs in a very thin stream.

The bacteria that sour the milk act slowly in a cold temperature. That is why milk, meat, and similar foods, keep so much longer when packed in ice. Cold destroys most of the germs. A quart of milk, when clean and pure, is the most natural and healthful food that is known. A quart of such milk as we have pictured is equal in food value to 18oz. of beefsteak. Whenever milk is largely used in any family the bills for meat will surely be reduced. The milk business is not what it ought to be. Too many customers regard milk as a luxury and not as a food. The public should be educated to know that a quart of good milk ranks with meat and wheat-flour as food.

To the butter dairymen the most interesting thing about a quart of milk is the part performed by the cow in putting the fat into it. The cow’s udder is a machine for secreting and mixing fat. Take the machines in a cotton factory. Turn the whole force of the waterpower on to one machine for a certain time and it weaves 100 yards of cloth. This same power turned on to another machine may result in only 70 yards. It is the machine, not the power, that is at fault. A stream of rich blood passes by or through one cow’s udder for 24 hours, with the result that she produces 31b of fat. The same blood forces in another cow’s udder may produce but 21b. It is not the food or the blood that is at fault, but the cow. She lacks the nerve force, the will-power—the strong maternal instinct needed in every female to produce and keep up the special work of the udders. We see that dairy authorities are right in saying that the mental qualities of the cow must be looked after and considered. The number of cows kept on the farm is not as important as the quality of the cows kept. By selecting good producing animals of high test for breeding purposes, the average test, as well as the milk production of the herd, may be raised, and it is this which most breeders recognise as their goal. SOME ALARMING FIGURES. COST OF BUTTER PRODUCTION. The following figures relating to the Stratford Dairy Company have been supplied to the Press: — The charges from f.o.b. (inclusive of grading fees and the control levy) for the season 1923-24 on the £191,700 worth of produce were as follows jExchange £3241, reckoned on the value of advances; landing charges £1786, reckoned on the value of the produce; insurance £1272, reckoned on the route and the value; commission £4789, reckoned on value; and the highest charge of all was freight £16,750, reckoned on weight. These charges totalled £29,436, or 15.3 per cent, of the total value of the produce. One item alone, that of freight, absorbed 8.73 per cent; of the value, and was equal to 56.9 per cent, of the charges incurred. The grading fees for the cotnpany last year amounted to £179. and if the dairy control levy had been in operation for the full season, it would have cost the company £640. All of these charges have to be added to the cost of manufacture, overhead expenses, etc., and deducted from the price realised.

This year there is a slight reduction in freight charges. The freight on a box of butter has been reduced from 4s 6d to 4s, and on one pound of cheese from Id to 29.32 d. Such reductions are always welcome, but it is estimated that the benefit so gained will be more than swallowed up by the increase in the rate of exchange, which now stands at 55s per cent, on sight drafts. Fortunately there is a small reduction in the insurance rates this year, but the fact remains that most of the charges enumerated above are fixed and do not vary whether the price of produce goes up or down.

BREEDING RESEARCH

STUDY OF COLOUR PROBLEMS. (The following is by Dr F. F. Finlay of the Animal Breeding Research Department of Edinburgh.) INHERITANCE IN HORSES. Few stud masters are aware of the great advances that science has made in the investigation of the inheritance of colour in horses. There is still much to be done, however, before all the details are thoroughly worked out. The best method of investigating the problem is to follow the breeding records of individual stallions at stud. Unfortunately it is not very convenient to see the progeny of stallions when they have travelled over a wide area, but in some of the larger breeding establishments, or where the produce of a sire can be definitely seen within a circumscribed area, information on colour inheritance can readily be secured. The thoroughbred is the best breed for studying colour inheritance because of the clear-cut colour distinctions which exist, and also because of the more accurate record of the ancestry. The opportunity of following through the transmission of colours in any stud, and particularly where grey stallions are used would be welcomed.

Because of its purity of breeding and colour limitations, the investigation of the Percheron breed and cross with Percheron would also be very profitable. Under the term “grey” is included an extremely multiple series of colours, but the Percheron is almost invariably of the one type of grey, and one always seeks for the more simple situations when investigating heredity. CLYDESDALE PROBLEMS. The Clydesdale is probably the worst breed for such investigations because of the absence of clear-cut distinctions in the coats. As an example of camouflage the Clydesdale coat is excellent, but as a basis for scientific investigations of colour inheritance it is hopeless. At the Highland Society’s last show I made a point of checking the descriptions of the colours in the show catalogue with the actual colours of the animals. There was no consistency whatsoever in description, and I estimated that probably 40 per cent, of the anmials in the shpwyard were erroneously described. This indicates how a study of colour inheritance from the Clydesdale Stud Brood is an absolute waste of time. However, it would be a pity if the breeding records of the famous “Dunure Footprint” could not be carefully investigated while he himself and his progeny are still alive. Probably no stallion in the history of stockbreeding has exercised such a profound influence upon a breed.

Compared with the better-known breeds, the Highland breed of ponies is not of great importance, but as material in which to investigate the problem of colour inheritance this breed is of exceptional interest. Colour combinations are found in these ponies such as cannot be found elsewhere, unless it be in Scandinavia. We have here a range of colours from the lowest members of the series, viz., chestnut to a grey Prevalski, or wild type. I would welcome the opportunity of following through the breeding record of stallions of any of the various shades of dun where their offspring can be seen in fairly large numbers in any district. Defects or abnormalities appear in horsebreeding from time to time, and data on these should all be collected and recorded. Appearance of three-toed horses, absence of the chestnut, data on inheritance of stringhalt, roaring, and shivering, the breeding record of sires, with small tastes, and rigs—these are all worth investigating. PIG BREEDING QUESTIONS.

The outline presented above makes it unnecessary to suggest the innumerable problems of interest in pig-breeding. The numerous breeds and the enormous number of possible combinations of characters make this subject as extensive as in the larger animals. In general it can be stated that the stockowner who restricts his breeding operations to pure-bred animals of a fixed type and colour can offer little information of value, but I would suggest that those pedigree breeders who are also engaged in systematic crossing for pure-breds can provide extensive data, and I would gladly cooperate with such in the elucidation of these problems. Also the breeder of pigs who would be willing to make certain experimental matings, and these need not be at any financial sacrifice, would be aiding in gathering accurate information on the hitherto neglected question of inheritance in swine. SHEEP INHERITANCE. The sheep breeder is less dependent upon scientific help than the breeders of the other species of domesticated animals, and for this reason he is generally more out of touch with the advances of science than his fellow-breeders. However, the problems of how to improve British wools has been receiving some consideration in official circles, judging from the most recent scheme which has been launched, viz., the utilisation of a Peruvian Merino for crossing with British breeds. It is a pity that sheep breeders cannot combine more effectively and make an effort to have their problems investigated in an effective manner. However, under existing conditions on some of our larger farms there is plenty of material well worthy of investigation. I would particularly welcome the opportunity of keeping in touch with breeders who are systematically endeavouring to improve the quality of their wools. Breeders who are also making such crosses as coloured with white, horned with hornless, and shorttailed with long-tailed types, can provide data of scientific value. DENMARK’S SUCCESS. A SOLID FOUNDATION. Mr P. G. Hampshire a dairy expert, in a lecture on the dairying industry, stressed the point that better breeding is one of the three main ways of improving the yields of dairying herds. Better bulls are to be used, and the Government will, if necessary assist dairymen to procure these animals. It is here that herd-testing comes in and is the foundation of the whole scheme. All bulls recommended by the Department of Agriculture must have pedigree dams which have passed the standards laid down by the Department. This is the rock upon which Denmark has built up her great dairying industry, and a very firm rock it is, too. In that country a farmer would not dream of buying a bull unless he knew at least what his dam produced at the bucket, and generally, his granddam also. A farmer would have very little chance of selling a bull there unless pedigreed, and with a good milk production strain running through him. It is hoped that dairymen in dairying districts will unite and form herd-test-ing associations, as is being done in other States. So important does the Government consider this question that it has offered to subsidise such associations on a £1 for £1 basis, and any technical instruction desired will be given free of charge. It is evident that herd testing is the key of the dairying industry, as only by it can we find out whether certain cows are profitable, and so enable us to breed from animals of proven worth. Breed, unless backed up by production, is of little use to the practical dairyman.

PLANT FOOD ELEMENTS.

A GOOD KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY.

The whole system of farming depends on the production of food, and since ail farm food comes from the soil a knowledge of the elements which constitute plant foods is essential to success.

It is from the soil that riches are won from the plant foods, which become stock foods and food for men, therefore to farm profitably one must know the soil and study the feeding of plants in relation to the feeding of stock. REQUIREMENTS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. There are at least twelve elements present in sufficient amounts to be important, in the composition of plants. Of these twelve elements at least three, namely, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are of special significance to the practical farmer. If there is but a : leagre supply of any one of these elements in the soil it is at once recorded in low crop yields or complete crop failures. In the composition of the animal body some fifteen chemical elements are found, viz.: —Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphur, Sodium, Chlorine, Magnesium, Iron, lodine, Fluorine, Silicon. Here again several of these elements are of special significance to the farmer. Just how important they are can best be realised when it is known that a dairy cow in reasonable milk secretes at each milking enough calcium (lime) to fill a small teacup, enough phosphorus in the form of phosphoric acid to fill a small wine-glass, enough potash to fill an eggcup, sufficient chlorine, soda manganese and sulphur to fill another, and nearly enough iron to make an inch nail. It is easy to see, therefore, that dairying, and for that matter any form of stock farming is a considerable tax on the soil, particularly is this the case when dairy produce, beef, mutton, and wool, are sold off the farm and not returned to the soil. The question, then, which concerns the farmer, is how to keep the soil rich in the necessary elements, yet at the same time continue to produce and market the commodities before mentioned. Chemistry knows that nature has pro Added a great store of fertility in the soil, and that so far as the farmer is concerned the only answer to the question is that GOOD FARMING IS ESSENTIAL if this soil fertility and production are to be maintained. Crop rotations, growing legumes (nitrogen gatherers), green manuring, liming, and the application of farm yard manure and artificial fertilisers must be continually practised. What is perhaps even of greater importance; pastures which are the best most natural and economical food for stock must be judiciously grazed and regularly renovated. At the back of all this are the food requirements of plants and stock and farmers of to-day are proving more than ever before that these two are linked together. From the soil through the plants to stock and back to the soil is the cycle, therefore if plants are poorly fed, stock are poorly fed. Never has this truth been so universally recognised, and never has the present day demand for fertilisers been exceeded for farmers realise these are the key to successful farming. THE NEED FOR LIME. The need for lime is threefold; firstly, it is a soil improver; secondly, it is a plant food ; and thirdly, it is a bone and body builder. Lime improves the nature of clay soil making it more open and friable. Drainage goes on more readily, while the land is warmer and more easily worked into a good tilth. It is difficult to exaggerate the value of lime on any class of soil. The insoluble reserves of nitrogen and potash are brought into action and rendered available by its presence. The liberation of phosphate from organic matter is also promoted by lime, while it sweetens soils and prevents or eradicates many soils and diseases. As a plant food lime is essential, and unless present in fair quantity soils cannot produce good crops. The lack of lime is quickly apparent in pasture by the matted, wiry type of herbage and the presence of such weeds as sorrel, docks, and bent grass. The presence of abundant supplies of lime is reflected in luscious pasture, rich in clovera, which respond in a remarkable degree to this plant food. These functions of lime are well known, but not so the value of lime as a bone and body builder. Lime is used for the permanent building of the skeleton of animals and the composition of the teeth. It is particularly vital to stock health and judgment as to the value of liming should not be based upon the appearance of the pasture after the application; but upon the health of the stock grazing on the pasture. APPLICATION OF LIME. The two forms of lime generally used in New Zealand are Burnt Lime and Carbonate of Lime. The common practice is to apply about 10 cwt to one ton of the burnt or one or two tons of the carbonate. For top-dressing pasture burnt lime should be applied in the winter for a heavy application tends to check the growth of grass if applied in the early autumn or in the spring. Carbonate of lime may be applied any etime without fear of checking the growth of the grass, and it may be applied at time of sowing when it can then be harrowed in with the seed. This form of lime is particularly suitable for sandy soils and grass land. It is well to remember that on many soils it is impossible to get good tilth and good crops without lime; nor is it possible to get big boned- healthy stock. PHOSPHATES AND FARMING KEY TO PERMANENCE. Agricultural scientists have emphasised the fact that phosphorus is the master key to permanent agriculture. Exhaustive experiments in practically every agricultural country have shown that this is so. The application of phosphates to grass land greatly encourages the growth of clover. Clover enriches the soil in nitrogen. Wild white clover, which is a humble plant of marvellous value, forms a most important and economical means for soil enrichment. Dr. Shutt, of Ottawa, found that the amount of nitrogen in a crop of clover weighing nine tons was equal to about 5j cwt. of nitrate of soda, while the decayed material on the surface had as much nitrogen per acre as in about 4cwt of nitrate of soda. Professor Gilchrist has also shown how greatly a wild white clover ley becomes enriched in valuable nitrogen and this effect increases the grass grown with the clover as well as the following corn and root crops.

The best method of enriching the soil of pasture in nitrogen is to encourage leguminous plants by the judicious use of phosphatic manures. In the Tree Field experiments phosphatic manures increased the soil in nitrogen by the equivalent of about scwt. of nitrate of soda per acre. Dr. Vanstone, of Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, has shown that the application of phosphatic manures results in:—(1) A great increase in the live weight of sheep and cattle; (2) Increased milk production; (3) Increased hay crops by as much as 10 cwt. to the acre; (4) A gam in the fertility of the soil.

There is no doubt that from all points of view the field test is the one reliable method left open to the farmer for ascertaining the comparative values of phosphatiq manures. By conducting actual field experiments and applying equal quantities of phosphoric acid (P 205 per acre he is enabled to arrive at a true result, but in order accurately to estimate the comparative values he must not only take into account the initial cost of the fertiliser, which is relatively small, but he must specially take note of the value of the crop produced.

WOOL PRICE PROBLEM.

HOW CAN IT BE SOLVED (By Campbell Smythe.) At the fourth Wellington Wool Sale it was plainly demonstrated that wool values had been stabilised on a level several pence below those current at the January sale. It is said that the lowered value was the result of manufacturers not being able to sell the goods made from wool at such high prices. Of course, woolgrowers sympathise with the great masses of the people in the prospectively higher prices they have to pay for their clothing, but nobody quite believes that the narrative related by manufacturers is quite true. We are asked to believe that our sympathy should extend to manufacturers; and accept with good grace the lower prices so that they might earn a living profit and pay 7 per cent, per annum to their shareholders. Biologically woolgrowers and wool-weavers are not on quite the same level; the farmer in his isolation is believed to have a soul while the corporation to which the wool .'peculators and mongers belong are. reputedly soulless. So while it was quite natural for the British wool people to insist upon the huge stores of wool in Britain, a few years ago being thrown into the wool ring while only twopence or threepence a pound was offering for it, it is neither natural nor logical for growers to complain about receiving a price below the dictates of the law of supply and demand. The grower with his conscience is asked to be generous, even philanthropic towards the wool corporations, regardless of the extremely dissimiliar treatment received from the same conscienceless corporations when they thought, they had the individualist woolgrower at their mercy. Luckily, neither the Australian Government and people nor the British Government quite saw eye to eye with the wool speculators, and the British and Australian Wool Realisation Association was formed and took charge of all the wool then unsold in store. This Association gave an object lesson that has not been taken very deeply to heart by that class of simulators who claim that when once the wool leaves the wool farm “it becomes a national asset,” meaning, of course, that although the wool is in store, still unsold, and still the property of the growers, it has be■ome something the speculating mob has a right to exploit to the full extent of their

colossal greed. It is because the Corporation is without a soul and jvithout sentiment that it claims to be acting strictly in accord with ihe ethics of its constitution, even while the grower does not get a price that pays for the actual outlay in shearing; and it is because woolgrowers are not a corporate body that it is quite a reasonable thing they should have soul and sentiment and therefore be expected to pity the poor soulless manufacturer and let him have their wool at a price that will enable him to pay his shareholders, for their possibly watered capital, a yearly dividend of not lees than 7 per cent. But should not such wool episodes cause the woolgrower to think? He sees the advantages and powers of wool speculators, which are begat of organisation for combined effort and yet he has not seriously set about organising the wool-growing forces. Chargrined and with feelings of hopelessness in helping himself he resigns his wool and lips into the sale-room ring regardless of what it is going to sell for. He knows it is going to be used in just the same way that Australian wheat has been used in the United States, where even a woman speculator netted over a milion in only a few minutes two or three weeks ago. Is it not the duty of every true citizen of this deeply debt-steeped little country to strain every vestige of business proclivity he is possessed of with a view to releasing it from some part, at least, of the over-bur-densome debt it has to carry? Every woolgrower will tacitly admit that his duty to himself and his country lies in giving to this question his most practical answer. He should therefore commence to organise, preferably, join the Farmers’ Union, but if that conflicts in any way with his views, let him set to work to build up a comprehensive Woolgrowers’ Association that could cooperate with the Farmers’ Union in satisfactorily solving the present depressing and wasteful problem. He can only be cured by taking a “hair of the dog that bit him.” SOIL BACTERIA. IMPORTANCE IN FARMING. Every fanner recognises the necessity for the cultivation of soil, and it is also known that good cultivation pays. But there are few who attempt to go below the surface and discover exactly why it is that soil reduced to a good tilth produces most abundantly. It is a matter that is assuredly worth closer investigation. The successful farmer is invariably the intelligent one, and no appreciable progress can be made unless the reasons for each separate work are thoroughly understood. But even now new points of view are constantly advanced as the result of closer scientific study. Thus, while it is generally understood that by rotation of crops a farmer can keep his soil in better tilth, the reason is not always rrasped. It is generally understood that a rotation system keeps up yields better than .'ingle cropping, through the fact that different kinds of plants remove plant food elements from the soils in different proportions, and that by changing from one crop to another the soil supply of plant food i® kept more evenly balanced. But rotation goes further. It feeds soil bacteria. How many farmers appreciate the fact that the soil teems with life, and if it were not for soil bacteria, tilth would be useless and plant life impossible. “These midget chemists of the land, the bacteria,” a contributor to the Country Gentleman says, “play the major role in promoting tilth. In teeming hordes they are present. They often number more than three billion to the ounce of soil, and under many conditions algae, moulds and protoxa are equally jibundant. The total microscopic life in an acre of land has been calculated as weighing from 500 to 700 pounds, or approximately the equivalent weight of live stock that a good pasture acre will carry. And while the role that this soil life plays is so complex that it will probably take more gen frations of close study before the full activities going on under the surface of the land are clearly understood, a few broadly fundamental facts have already been Drought to light.*

Soil bacteria for the most part subsist on organic matter or vegetable matter in the land. Not only does the teeming life break down added vegetable matter, setting free mineral salts on which crops directly feed, but one large group of soil bacteria functions in the nitrogen-gathering role probably with as great benefit to soil fertility and tilth, as the better known nitro-gen-fixing germs which grow on the roots of the legume are inoculated. One crop will contain from 100 to 200 pounds of nitrogen. Probably half this comes from nitrogen compounds already in the land, and the remainder is gathered in from the air by the aid of nitrogen-fixing germs with which the roots of the legume are inoculated. We hear much of the importance of having a legume crop in the rotation. We hear, however, but little of the other and greater sSurce of nitrogen supply in our soils. This other great source is through the action of bacteria feeding on the dead vegetable matter. When soil bacteria in the main feed on vegetable matter, and the only way to keep the soil in good tilth and a high state of fermentation is to supply this favourite bacterial food, mineral fertilisers enter into the problem in a more or less important degree. In this respect reference to the j remarks of the writer mentioned above is again resorted to: “The nitrifying group of germs of the so-called azotabacter group ! is considered now to be the real backbone lof our farming. But for these microorganisms working night and day, our nitrogen balance would be struck so far in the wrong direction that farming would be a more or less hopeless task. This group of bacteria shows a strong liking for phos- , phatic fertilisers, growing and multiplying at a rapidly increased rate when this element is fully supplied. Possibly this fact explains fully as much as does the direct plant food theory, good returns from far and wide through using phosphatic fertilisers. The bacterial reaction of potash is noticeable, but not so striking. Mineral nitrogen fertilisers show a pronounced effe.et in this wise: Applications of nitrate of soda tend to make the soil reaction alkaline, while the action of ammonium sulphate is to make the soil acid. Bacteria thrive best in an alkaline soil. Alkalinity, however, can be carried too far, causing too great activity of bacteria, too rapid breaking down of the soil vegetable matter and a waste of plant food, as well as destruction of bacterial food, and a consequent period of famine, unless heroic measures are taken to keep up the vegetable matter supply. “There is something in the old saying about lime enriching the father but impoverishing the son. Farmers who use lime liberally should make equally liberal provisions for keeping the soil provided with vegetable matter. Excess lime builds up a terrific bacterial appetite, which makes sometimes for a wasteful burning out of vegetable matter that must be replaced or else soil tilth will suffer.” GENERAL JOTTINGS. HERE AND THERE. Wheat sowing in India was being carried out under favourable conditions at the end of October. Agricultural operations must be deliberated before being commenced, then they should be executed with vigour.

A breeding sow belonging to Mr C. Hansen, Springdale, recently broke the record with a litter of 21 pigs. Cereals of various kinds produce a useful and cheap food for pigs when sown in the autumn and fed off green in the spring and early sumer.

Co-operative marketing associations have proved themselves capable of handling business problems in an efficient business manner in many countries.

The forests of the Auckland province still yield some 20,000,000 superficial feet of sawn kauri per annum. The bulk of this output is used in the Dominion.

The principal live stock in Palestine are sheep and goats, the former in 1923 totalling 270,593, and the latter 496,160 both showing slight increases over 1922. * All breeding rams selected should be equal or superior to the ewes, and should be particularly strong in those characteristics which are lacking in the stock. It is the cows that are uniform producers during the lactation period that make the money for the dairy farmer, and these are the cows that should be encouraged.

The number of cattle in Mauritius in 1923 was estimated at 16.554, and sheep at 1518, both slightly less than 1922. Cuba returned 4,976,132 cattle, as against 4,877,499 in 1922.

Native bears in Queensland are, under protection increasing in numbers again. In 1919-20 an open season was declared, with the result that about a million of them were killed.

The Alberta Co-operative Wheat Pool handled between 34 and 38 million bushels of the 1923 harvest, the first year of its operation. The net return to growers was approximately 86 cents (3s 7d) a bushel. Poultry farming in New Zealand has been greatly stimulated by reason of the enterprise of many of our breeders, and the results of the laying competitions in respects to the yield from individual birds.

The number of cattle sheep and goats in French Morocco in 1923 was as follows, figures for 1922 being given in parentheses: —Cattle. 1,682,998 (1,558.253 > sheep, 7.120,192 ( 6,318,925 ) ; goats 2,358,599 (2,059,5731. The number of cattle in Rumania in 1923 was estimated at 6,365,000 head, compared with 5,937.200 in 1922. Sheep were estimated at 13,800,000 in 1923, against 12,320,600 in 1922.

Clovers provide an excellent pig feed and they will usually appear in abundance on any land where pigs have been running, even though there was not a sign of them there before.

The object of every sheepfarmer is to obtain the greatest return from the flock. To get these returns sufficient feed for the flocks must be provided during the dry summer and early autumn months. One advantage that the artichoke possesses as a pig food is that it is seldom, if ever, attacked by disease, and, unlike the potato it will yield year after year from homesaved seed without showing any signs of degeneration.

LIVER ROT IN SHEEP.

A BAD COMPLAINT. Several interesting subjects are dealt with by Mr R. Daubney (Helminthologist, Diseases of Animals Branch, Ministry of Agriculture) in an article in the October issue of “The Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture.’

In view of the present wet season, his remarks on liver rot are particularly applicable. This disease, he states, is caused by the presence in the liver of large numbers of the Them at ode, or Fasciola hepatica, and in certain seasons the losses occasioned by this parasite assume the character of an epizootic. In the season of 192021 it was calculated that over 100,000 sheep died, or were sent to the butcher in a diseased state, as a result of the ravages of this parasite. In general its effects are very similar to those of Qstertagia related above. That is to say in a normal season loss is very slight, but when weather conditions are favourable to the survival of the developing forms of the worms, extremely heavy infestation takes place with a very high mortality in the flock. As an instance may be cited a case that came to the writer’s knowledge in which one farmer lost over 400 ewes out of a flock of 420. These animals all died between November and the following January.

Various methods have been devised to destroy the snails. The use of dressings of lime or salt have been advocated for many years. The snail, however, possesses a considerable degree of adaptability to variations in salinity, and such dressings are of no value as might be deduced from the frequent ocurrence of severe outbreaks of liver rot on salt marshes. It was found by the writer, and subesquently confirmed by other observers that copper sulphate, which had already been used for the destruction of related snails, was extremely toxic to Linnaea truncatula. As a result of laboratory experiments the plan was adopted of spraying infested pastures with a one per cent solution of copper sulphate and dressing ditches with powdered copper sulphate. Such treatment has been efficacious in removing snails from heavily infested land, and after two years one farmer reports the complete .absence of fluke in the sheep killed for food. It was stated that, in forty years' experience on this particular farm, never before had a whole season elapsed without the occurrence of some flukes in the sheep killed. Although the effect of the coper sulphate treatment has apparently lasted for two and a-hfrif years, it is only a matter of time until conditions revert to what formerly was considered normal, and sooner or later spraying and dressing must again be undertaken. It will be recalled that it was stated that the snails in question live only in slowrunning ditches and stagnant water. Such ditches should be improved wherever possible and periodically cleansed, the 'material that is thrown out on the banks being treated with powdered copper sulphate. Efficient drainage of the land, however, including, of course, lL< prevention of inundations and the improvement of ditches, will confer permanent freedom providing such drainage works are well maintained. MAKING BEST BUTTER. NEW ZEALAND’S REPUTATION. MARKETING CONDITIONS. WORK OF CONTROL BOARD. An interesting address was given to Auckland daily-factory managers by Mr W. Grounds, chairman of the Dairy Produce Export Control Board, at Southdown last week. Mr Grounds said a technical advantage had been achieved by the application of enthusiasm and intelligence on the part cf the Government graders, who had contributed to the very enviable reputation of New Zealand in all the markets supplied. The graders had been the central soul of all the development work, and that was recognised in London. With reference to cream grading, the charter of the board did not include encouragement of quality, but it would not be in a sound position if it did not play a part in the improvement of quality. In view of the board's decision to establish a system of control, still greater responsibility would rest on managers and grading staffs if the quality was to remain paramount. His experiences in England impressed him with the fact that if produce was made under decent conditions, and delivered and shipped in good order, the cold storage did not materially affect the quality of the produce for a very considerable time. Nevertheless, the storage in London gave possibilities for deterioration in quality. He referred to some butter bought for speculation and not properly stored. It was imperative that produce should go into cold storage unless it was going to be distributed immediately. It was necessary that butter should be shipped at the same temperature at which it was to lac carried to England. The board was insisting on the proper temperatures, and was pointing out that weaknesses in handling were not all at the other end.

Mr Grounds mentioned the need for a superfine or choicest grade of butter but the level between the superfine and the firstgrade had not been discussed. Payment .would be based’on the quality turned out. North European countries, particularly Denmark, were behind the propaganda going on in England drawing attention to the use of boric acid. A large number of New Zealand factories were not using boric acid but unfortunately London merchants were of opinion that it was not a good thing to advertise non-preservation, since the implication was that everyone else was using preservative. The industry would be faced with the. possibility of doing entirely without boric acid.

“At the present time,” concluded Mr Grounds, “New Zealand and Danish butters share the field for best table butters, and New Zealand and Canada for cheese. We must not rest on our oars, but must maintain the lead which we have established. There is a sparing and system ised use of turnip feeding in Denmark, where feeding has been developed to a fine art. There is a need for scientific examination in New Zealand of the whole of the manufacture, and this circulates round the demand for a laboratory and an experimental dairy factory.’’ TOP DRESSING THE HILLS. IMPORTANT DEPARTMENTAL SCHEME EXPERIMENTS AT MANAWATU. “The people have just awakened to the fact that the land is going back, whereas it has been gradually deteriorating for many years,” stated Mr J. W. McCullock, In structor in Agriculture at Palmerston North, when speaking to a reporter last week upon the subject of topdressing hilly country. "It is time we put back a little of what we have taken from it. Every year there has been a crop of something taken away, and this has robed the soil of its fertility. We send the crops—wool, mutton, or whatever they may be —overseas, and put back nothing on the land.” A scheme had recently been inaugurated, and experiments were at present being carried out throughout the Wellington province from Wellington to the Rangitikei and southern Hawke’s Bay, under which farmers in certain parts were being assisted by the Department of Agriculture to top dress some of the hilly country on their farms with manure, in order that an accurate conception may be gained as to whether the work is profitable or otherwise. Arangements had been 7 made, stated Mr. McCullock, to have 1000 acres in this district set aside in plots of 50 acres each, so that the Department can decide whether to recommend the principle to farmers. “We know that the land will be better,” be continued, “but the great question is whether the cost of the work will be countered by the increased return which the farmer will derive. It is impossible ai the moment to go into figures, but even if a man increases the capacity of his land by , half a sheep to the acre—and that is a con-

servative estimate in many cases—it would pay. On account of the land being inaccessible with a machine, the manure would have to be laid by hand, and this naturally increases the cost. Labour is the big problem /and the Department is anxious to have a tangible result. “It is possible that land may take more than one year to reach its highest capacity, but if an improvement is noticed at the end of the first twelve months, many farmers will be pleased, for this must necessarily mean an increased output. “An odd man or two has come along and said that he has put manure on his hilly land and has noticed an improvement, but the Department has launched this scheme on a comprehensive scale with a view to assessing the coat. It will be twelve months before any appreciable results will be available.”

Mr McCullock continued that farmers were only now realising what this was io mean to them, for although the land that had originally not been covered with bush could not have gone back the part which had been cleared and sown had been bled until they were on a gradual downward trend. If arable land had to be topdressed, then it was a matter of reason that something of the sort would have to be done on the higher levels.

N.Z. ROMNEY FLEECES.

HIGHLY PRAISED IN LONDON. Last year Mr William Windley, of Porirua, sent a number of sample fleeces of Romney wool to London in anticipation of having them included in the Dominion wool exhibit at Wembley, but unfortunately the consignment arrived too late. Recognising the exceptionally high quality of the wool, Mr Windley’s brokers (New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited) had the fleeces prominently displayed in one of the leading warehouses in London, where they called forth the most favourable comments from numerous experts who examined them.

One prominent broker, reporting on the exhibit, wrote as follows: “All these fleeces show an exceptionally well bred stamp of wool and while we know it is impossible in many districts to produce wool of equally light condition, we are strongly of the opinion that if the same care in selection which has obviously been exercised in this case was universally practised, we should see none of the hairy tip which often disfigures a Romney fleece, and should see no articles from Bradford manufacturers condemning the Romney as a breed.”