THE CASEIN INDUSTRY AND PIGS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 28, 1 February 1913, Page 2

THE CASEIN INDUSTRY AND PIGS

We (New Zealand Dairyman) observe that the Wanganui Casein Company has approached the Prime Minister with the View of Obtaining financial assistance from the Government

for the purpose of fosterng the manufacture of caisdi'n in the Dominion. Mr Holst, the manager of the Company, explained thdt B‘casein” Was the indigestible matter contained in skimmilk, and was used for the'manufacture of knife handles, billiard balls, and so on. He said the extraction of the casein from tin; milk “did not in any ! degree.cf.educe $lO. feeding value of the milk for calves and pigs.” Now, if Mr Holst was a very great personal friend of mine, and I cpuld take the liberty of addressing hi,m like a brother, I wouldj call hiip 4 tiiat is a perverter qi- ’the words, what he says on this point is just a lot of tommyrot. The average composition of cows’ milk is given by Babcock thus:—Water 87.17, fat 3.69, casen 3.02, albumin 0.53, sugar 4.88, and ash 0.71. Now, when the fat is removed, what is known as skim milk is left, and this product is in my opinion of more value as a food for pigs than any other single food,'' with one exception, and that is whole milk. And it is this very casein which is left in the skim milk which makes it of such high value as a pig food. Casein is a proteid which, in skim milk, is in a very suitable form for pigs, and es-. pecially young pigs, and is a highly concentrated and valuable food, and to say as Mr Holst does, that it is, “indigestible matter” is nonsense. Now, 1 sincerely trust that the Government will not be so ill-advised as to comply with tho request of the Casein Company. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that companies of this kind are bound to injure the dairy industry of the Dominion. Milk is the natural food of young animals, and in spite of all the stock foods that are in the . market to-day, all leading stockmen know that not one of you want to make a calf into a great bull, or a wcaner into a great boar, a little whole milk won’t ruin them. And if you want to have ordinary respectable looking pigs, skim-

milk with the casein left in won’t do them any harm. But, if you take out the casein, and I hear it suggested that the sugar is going to be taken out .as well, then farewell to skim-milk; your young stock will do just as well with a drink at the creek. Besides, when you come to think of it: What on earth is the ultimate advantage of being able to make billiard balls!! This is one of the articles Mr Holst suggests. Is it not a far better scheme to convert our casein into bacon and ham, and when wo have enough and to spare we can easily sell the surplus, and buy all the blooming billiard balls wo want, and knife-handles as well ? If there is one thing more than another that the British nation requires at the present it is food. If every Britisher had an ample supply of food, we needn’t worry about war with Germany. Millions are starving in the Old Country, and yet our Colonial Government is being approached to lend its assistance for the conversion of a valuable food into Billiard Halls! The very idea is preposterous. I The sum Mr Holst is asking for is £750, and the request is put in this 1 way: “That the Government should ; again put on the Estimates the sum j of £750 for the development of pro--1 ducts of the dairy industry.” Now, ! what I suggest is, that if the Govcrnj raent have £750 for such development, they could not devote it to a better purpose than fostering the pig indusLet them use the money to start a herd or two of first-class pigs at one

or other of the Experimental Farms and carry on the work on similar lines as Hawkesbury College, N.S.W. This would be using public money for a sound purpose, but the manufacture of Billiard Balls, forsooth! Why, we might as soon expect the Government to subsidise the making of jumpingjacks for the kids!