NEWS AND VIEWS

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9064, 27 April 1937, Page 4

NEWS AND VIEWS

THE WORLD'S DAIRY HERDS ! i ;. SUMMARY OP FIGURES ; i PERIOD OF INCREASE i The Imperial Economic Committee I lias just published a summary of ! ' facts and figures, in which much in- ' formation is given regarding the number of cows in most countries in the world. Owing to differences in ; classification, it is not possible to ; compare the dairy herds of different • countries. Cows are kept for other , purposes than for milk, e.g., for ' breeding or draught, and the distinction is seldom brought out in national returns. The total number of cows in the countries listed (excluding Russia) increased over the period 1929-35. If Russia is includ- J sd a diminution is apparent, due to ; !:e marked decline in that country j up to 1934, although 1935 showed a slight recovery. Empire countries showed an expansion above the average, most marked for New Zealand and Australia, but appreciable also for the United Kingdom. The tendency for cow numbers in the world (excluding Russia) to increase in the past seven years coincided with a downward trend in total cattle. Australia is shown in 1934 as having 3,396,000 cows and New Zealand 1,933,000, which increased to 1,952,000 for 1935. Apart from India, where in 1933 It was estimated that there were 48,396,100 cows, the United States of America in 1935 had the largest number — 25,622,000. In Soviet Russia in the same year there were 20,147,000 cows, although in 1929 Russia's herd totalled 30,360,000. Germany is next on the list with 11,018,000; France, 8,663,000; Poland, 6,552,000; and Czechoslovakia, 2,500,000. Between 1929 and the end of 1935, the United Kingdom increased its herd from 3,430,000 to 3,828,000; Canada, from 3,055,000 to 3,849,000; and the Irish Free State, from 1,227,000 to 1,332,000. Other cow populations of interest shown are: Argentine, 3,000,000; Denmark, 1.646,000; Belgium, 970,000; Netherlands 1,435,000; Estonia, 403,000; | Latvia, 874,000; Lithuania, 751,000; | Sweden, 1,926,000; . Norway, 796,-1 COO; Hungary, 914,000; Switzerland, | 9 03,000. In 1934, Japan was shown, to have 935,000 cows, 94,000 being dairy cows. CLOTHING FROM MILK Members of the Italian Embassy in London recently appeared in public wearing suits made from milk —and vary fine they were, too, according to a writer in a British farming journal. Quite the most startling development in the transformation of milk by industrial processes, he says, is the successful manufacture of synthetic wool by the Italians. It is claimed that Italian "wool" made from milk is as fine and as easily woven as the best quality Merino, with the added advantage that it does not shrink, ."•'any a farmer, it is stated, buys hack his own produce, quite unknowingly, in the course of time. It may u in''a tin of boot polish, a pot of punt, or whitewash, the knobs of a ■. ireless set, or an insecticide for "spraying fruit. All these things and a hundred others are being made from milk to-day. Industrialists are constantly discovering strange new uses for the milk which the housewife fails to buy. Many of the processes involved in this fascinating transformation are being kept secret, but practically all are based on the simple separation of casein—the raw material of cheese-making—from :r.ilk, by rennet or other acid agents, and the addition of dyes. The best known produce of casein is the galalitta, or milk stone, from which umbrella handles, buttons, and even artificial marble is made. The coloured cheese-like mass which results after the separating-out process is treated with a chemical called form-

aldehyde. As the material hardens it is moulded into the required shape by haudralic presses. By an ingenious application of analine dyes—which are made from coal —and chemical colouring matter, the milkstone can be veined like marble, or mottled, with a myriad of colours, or made to resemble any particular substance, even tortoiseshell. By a different chemical treatment, milkotone may be made transparent—and there one has a variety of "unbreakable glass."