CAR FALLS HUNDRED FEET

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1929, Page 19

CAR FALLS HUNDRED FEET

THREE MOTORISTS INJURED. x • . By Telegraph.—Press Association. Te Kuiti, November 11. A car containing three persona, Messrs. St. Darrell, W. Mcßae, and Leonard Tinkler, went over a bank near Marokopa on Sunday morning. The occupants had a miraculous escape, the car falling 100 feet, and being smashed to pieces. . Mr. Darvell received a broken and crushed leg, Mr. Mcßae a gash in the thigh and shock, and Mr. Tinkler a severe shaking and bruises. The car skidded on the clay road rendered slippery by recent heavy rains. Mr. Tinkler, who fell farthest with the car, received the least injury. All belong to Te Kuiti. ' \

NEW BREED OF PIGS. INTRODUCTION OF DUROC-JERSEY. POPULAR IN STATES.

Without any flourish of trumpets, some months ago there .was brought to New- Zealand a. shipment of Duroc-Jersey pigs— a new breed to the Dominion. The introduction of this breed was recommended in 1924 by Mr. C., E. Robertson, stud stock manager for Messrs. Wright Stephenson and Co., Ltd., who, in that year, paid a visit to South and North America. In the former country, he found that the largest, breeder and exporter of pork products in Argentina had decided to discard some of the older breeds and specialise in this breed, which had been imported into the Argentine some eight years earlier than the visit of Air. Robertson. ; Going i to the United States, it was found that this country, which is famous for its pigs and where pigs outnumber sheep in the ratio of five to four, had evolved quite a number of breeds of its own, but foremost among these was the red pig known as the Duroc-Jersey. This pig was evolved somewhat for .the same reason that tlie sheep breeders of. Canterbury set themselves to establish the breed now known as the Corriedale —to incorporate the best qualities of several separate breeds. To-day, the breed has become the national breed, of America, for, in that land of millions of pigs, 51 pjr cent, of the pork /t.iid pork products marketed in thy United States is produced by this breed. , After some years’ delay, authority was given by the Department of Agriculture to make an importation of these pigs from Canada.. The first shipment was landed, in New Zealand some months ago by Messrs. Wright Stephenson and Co., Ltd. The breeders for y'hom the. pioneer shipment .was imported- are Alessrs, R. G., Dalziell, Hunterville,. .Fred Discombej Hautapu, Cambridge, D;,and S. Ross, Te Puke, and G. Newcombe, Tauhoa. 11l each case, a boar and; one or more sows in pig were imported, and as they are (practically all of different strains, the foundation of the breed, has been soundly laid in the Dominion. Keen appreciation of the new breed has been expressed on all sides, and Air. Discombe, who lias the largest piggeries in the Dominion, has expressed his opinion that the .Duroc-Jersey is in typo the ideal for which he as a pig breeder has been striving for many years. The first of these imported pigs to be shown in the Dominion were placed on exhibition by Mr. Dalziell at the Mana'watu Spring Show, and, in addition to that, Air. Dalziell also exhibited two 'pens of half-bred pigs sired by the Duroc-Jersey boar, One pen of these were out of Berkshire sows, and the other out of Tamworth' sows. These exhibits created widespread interest and called forth the unanimous approval of farmers interested in pig breeding.

The Duroc.-Jerscy is a lengthy but particularly well made pig, arched in the back and very deep in the hams and 1 sides. Practically all waste has* been eliminated from the conformation of this •pig. The that this breed is the most popular in the United States proves that it is the best for utility purposes. Many contests are held annually throughout North America, to prove the best breed, and the sweeping victories that the Duroc-Jersey pigs-have won proved conclusively that they made the quickest growth and return to the breeder and fattener the most profit in the shortest time. The sows are very prolific and are great mothers. They are particularly tractable and have a great reputation fox’ rearing successfully their extra large litters. They are also known to be wonderful foragers in the open and make the best possible use of the food. Being an active type of pig and of such quick growth, they are naturally the cheapest to bring to profit, and, both -s a fattening breed and for crossing purposes, must have a great vogue in the Dominion.

POLLED HE REFORDS IN C.S.A. BULL IMPORTED TO NEW ZEALAND Breeders of beef cattle both in New Zealand and in Australia have been very keenly interested for years past in tho naturally polled herds of Hereford and Shorthorn cattle maintained in the United States. These cattle were originated from “sports” occurring in pedigree lierds, many of which were found to breed true. Some years ago, importations of Polled Shorthorns were made to New Zealand, and of Polled Herefords to Australia. The first Polled Hereford to be imported to New Zealand, however, has just been delivered from the quarantine station on Somes’ Island. This bull was selected for Messrs. Wright Stephenson and Co., Ltd. by one of the leading authorities on the breed in the United States. He has been imported for use in the pedigree herd of Mr. F. E. Humphreys, of Ngatapa, Gisborne. During his stay on the quarantine island, a number of the leading breeders of Hereford cattle, and others interested, visited the Island to inspect this bull, and all wei/e struck with the remarkably fine type and character of the animal himself—few bettei - have been seen in the Dominion. He is a true Hereford in every respect except that he is naturally polled. Indications are not. wanting that several breeders will follow‘Mr. Humphreys’ lead in importing bulls with the hornless characteristic, particularly when it is known that this bull is descended entirely from Hereford cattle originally imported from England into tho United States. Mr. Humphreys’ bull, which is a rising two-year-old, proved to be a great doer and stood the voyage extremely well. Ho developed wonderfully in quarantine, and is bound to create keen interest amongst the Hereford breeders on tho East Coast. Investigations made by Mr. Humphreys have , already led to tho discovery in one of the purebred hei ds at Wairoa of a, naturally polled registered cow, and it understood that 'a cow in another registered herd with a similar characteristic has. been discovered in North Auckland. , Mr. Humphreys hopes, if he succeeds in securing these cows, to breed bulls from them which can also be used in imparling the hornless characteristic with greater certainty than may at first be .secured through using the progeny of this bull from the horned cows in this present herd. However, it is already known in the Dominion that the Polled Shorthorn bulls imported here, when, mated with horned Shortlfbrn cows, have invariably proved capable of leaving progeny in the generation with the polled characteristic.

A DREADED MALADY, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. POSSIBLE PERIL FROM RATS. STRENGTH OF THE. GERM. London,. Sept. 0. Delegates to the Veterinary Congress at Ayr discussed the question of foot-and-mouth disease, most of the speakers favouring the slaughter policy in attacking the disease. “It has been conclusively proved that one way -the virus of disease enters this country is in Continental pig carcases, shipped here to ’ • converted into so-called Ayrshire bacon,” declared Mr. J. C. Powley, superintending inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture’. In a piggery in Yorkshire, continued Air. Powley, an inspector recently noticed a large number of lame rats dealing with an outbreak of the disease, and this discovery was being investigated by the research committee. There were several reasons why. it should be possible for the rat to contract the disease naturally, one of which was its burrowing propensities. If the rat was proved to contract the disease naturally, the work of. dealing with outbreaks in the field would be more difficult. . •

WONDER STRENGTH OF THE VIRUS. In Lancashire the e had been clear circumstantial evidence of infection 'of pigs and calle through freshly-ground bones for poultry from South American beef carcases. Cattle food was frequently carried in old Argentine sacks .packed in ships’ holds in contact with hides and many other meat products which might contain infective materials Considering the extort of the disease, on the Continent.and in South America, combined with the greatly-increased facilities for trade with them, the wonder was that this country was at times so free.

Continuing, Air. Powley contradicted the common impression that the virus of foot-and-mouth disease was easily destroyed in hay and garden soil. It had lived 25 to 30 days, and virus kept on hay and bran at atmospheric vapour pressure had remained alive two to five months. When this discovery was combined with the astonishing fact that, experimentally the disease could be produced with the virus diluted one in 10,000,000, one could realise, the difficulty in eradicating the disease.

ARGENTINE SITUATION IMPROVING

Professor S. H. Gaiger, of Liverpool, stated that one tablespoonful of the virus could be diluted to 36,000 gallons of water, which woijld be infective when injected into susceptible animals. After' a tour of inspection of the Argentine last year, he thought there was a distinct possibility of cattle being killed in the incubative stages of the disease and exported to England. The situation, however, was improving. Major D. S. Rabagliati, of Wakefield, expressed the opinion that the private slaughter house so common on English farms was one of the . most potent spreaders of foot-and-mouth diseases. A strong protest against the presumption that this country was compelled to import large and increasing quantities of South American meat was made by Major J. A. Dixon, of Leeds. “The importation pf frozen meat from South America,” he said, “has made meat cheap on the wholesale market, but not to the consumer. For nine months in the year fat cows can scarcely be given away. The butchers find they can make more profit out of handling foreign meat.”