LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1593, 8 January 1925, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

CONTAGIOUS MAMMITIS,

Sir, —May I be permitted to say that your lengthy article in the Waipa Post on Tuesday, devoted to the subject of contagious mammitis. should prove very interesting reading to numbers of daixy farmers in this district. Why the Department, of Agriculture is so lax in taking the matter up is hard to understand. However, it seems to me that farmersinterested would be foolish to await the officials' good pleasure. The evidence supplied by Messrs Churches. Hall and Focke, and several other gentlemen, as to the good results obtained from inoculation with this vaccine should make any farmer who has udder trouble in his herd anxious to combat and get relief from that trouble, which in the course of a season makes a large drain on the earning power of his herd, leaving alone ihe time and trouble he goes to in trying to get them right and sound. I would suggest, Sir, in view of the fact that the Waipa Post is the district's journal, ever ready to help and advise farmers, ■that any dairyman who wishes to get this vaccine treatment in the Te Awamutu district should forward his name and address, a'so the number in his herd, to "Vaccine," care of your office, when they could be forwarded to Mr Day at Hamilton. When the minimum of 2000 cows is reached the treatment could start. Perhaps after ■reading this some other farmer may consider he has a better suggestion. I should be glad to hear it. —I am, A. H. PARISH, Hairini. (It is interesting to note that when asked if the Government had taken any action in regard to the treatment of mammitis, the Director-General of Agriculture, Dr. C. J. Reakes, stated: ■■" With reference to the lengthy statements published regarding the treatment of contagious mammitis by a vaccine prepared at Hamilton, the Department is not at present in a position to express any opinion as to the value of this vaccine as a preventive or curative agent. About the end of November, a specially-trained officer of the Department stationed at Hamilton was asked to secure a supply of the vaccine, in order that thorough and exact tests of it could be made, and he has done his best to do this. But so far the vaccine has not been obtainable. However, the efforts to secure it are still being continued, and it is hoped that the tests can be commenced at a very early date."—Ed. W.P.)