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Waikato Argus, Volume IX, Issue 773, 6 October 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

cause of iho indirect advantage gained than through the actual gain in weight or bulk of wool from the double shearing Some people have an idea that shearing lambs is a sign that the owner is hard up, and is compelled to turn his wool into money ; but that is absurd, for if it is not advisable, or expedient, to shear on the grounds already mentioned, tho value of the fleece is an unimportant consideration. . _ ~ , Dehobnino CalvfS.—An English pap°r, writing on the above subject. Bays : _The practice of dehoraing calvts is steadily gaining ground from year to year, with the result that the number of rolled stores now to be met with in our markets is becoming larger and larger every season. This is as it should be, because experience shows that polled cattle thrive better when fed in yards than others of the same breed and of similar age with their horns untouched. Another point in favour of dehorning is that when cattle are so treated it is found possible to keep a larger number of them in the same space than if the animals were left in their natural concii: tion Many farmers still follow the practice of allowing their calves to produce their horns in natural course, and removing these horns only when the animals are brought up for feeding or sent for 6ale to some market whire it is known that polled cattle sell better than those with horns. Much better than this plan which causes a considerable pain to tho beasts while the horns are being sawn off, is that so frequently .advocated in these columns during the past ten years-the application of a little caustic potash to the embrvo horn roots within a week or ten days'after the animal's birth. This plan is simplicity itself. AH that it is necessary to do is to purchase at the nearest chemist's a stick of caustic potash and a little common ammonia ; a pinch of the ammonia should be put into a little tepid water, and with the water thus ammoniated, the skin immediately over the redon of the horn—to tho size of about" lialf-a-crown—should ho thoroughly ' soaked.' Care should be taken not to allow the area eo moistened to exceed the horn base. The circular patch thus treated should then be rubbed with" the free end of the caustic potash stick (the other end being covered with paper to m-otect the fingers of the operator) and the proceeas should be continued for a few minutes, or until the skin over the region of the horn begins to redden or become raw. The operation is then complete ; the part operated on shortly becomes ' crusted ' over : this crust peels off in due course, and tho • horn root' being thus destroyed, there need be no fear of its subsequent growth. In order to onsure tho success of the opeia tion, the caustic should bo used before the calf is a fortnight old.

Purer Flocks.—' One often hears, writes ' Lana' in the Sydney « Mail, 1 ' aheepbreeders speak of tho purity of their Socks, and for want of better knowledge their statements are accepted. But it is a question whether the number of pure flocks in Australia cannot bo all numbered off the fingerß of one's hands. What is moant by purity ? For a strain to be entitled to the designation pure, xt must not have had any admixture for at least 100 years. But since the early history of Australian shrepbreeding is still enveloped with some degree if uncertainty, it would be better to take off thirty years, and make the purity of strain standard seventy years limit. Even then we cannot write with conviction, for the works on Australian stud flooks are very incomplete, and must always be so, if they are undertaken by private individuals for profit only. If we look for the flocks in existence in 1830, at least those whose history have published, it is doubtful whether a single one has kept intact the strain the sheep had inherited at that date. 1 cannot find one but has had some outside blood since. In fact, the only flock since 1840 that can claim purity is the Murray flock in South Australia. From 1841 to the present date no outside blood has been introduced. Next to this tho Eawdon flook, near Mudgee may be stud flocks in this colony that can trace their descent for over seventy years but during some period since they were started some outside blood has been introduced. If we could be certain that the new blood was of exactly the same strains then the purity of the flock could not impugned. Unfortunately for purity of blood from Spanish strains one has to dive through such a mass of history, some of which is doubtful in its accuracy, that any attempt to forge a chain o£ even links is almost a matter of impossibility. The history of the American merino has been much better kept than the Australian, and there is no gainsaying that the former can claim a greater ago of purity than our own. But even there one meets with a flaw, not a very important one, but a flaw all tho same. After the Spanish was again reverted to. But there is no mention whether tho Saxon b'ood was totally discarded or whether a portion of it was kept in the flocks. Although the Saxon was originally Spanish it had been bred on different lines, the same as the American was bred on different lines to tho Australian. For this reason there is a flaw in the claim made by Americans for uninterrupted purity of strain of their merinos. Before we accept tho word purity it is as well to go back to tho history of tho flock as far as is known. Wo have so many instances of tho unexpected turning up in stud breeding that it would bo absurd to claim a title for our studs which few can lay claim to.' „