Cause and Effect.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 2, 8 January 1903, Page 18

Cause and Effect.

A whimsical reasoner once pointed out the relation that existed between old maids and the agricultural returns. The estimable ladies aforesaid encourage cats, which live on mice. These feed on the crops, and so the relation between spinsters and the wheat yield is established. The liability of New Zealand to stock diseases from foreign parts is increased by the spread of the dairy industry- The connection comes about in this way : The tendency in a dairying country is to breed cows alone, and that of small and fine quality. The hides from these are thin and unsuited for many purposes where thick leather is required. Therefore though there might* be a large surplus of hides to export from the Colony, it would still be necessary to import a certain quantity of the coarse kinds to meet the demand mentioned. At all events that was the reason put forward by a very large firm of New Zealand tanners some years ago in support of a request to relax the stringency against importing hides from Queensland and India. But the relation comes about in another way. Dairy farming leads to the laying down of greater areas un,der artificial pasture. This necessitates more manure, which must be imported. Any farmer, therefore, who buys crushed bones may be unwittingly laying down a fever, bed, which may spring into mischievous activity many years after, when the ground is ploughed again. Nor is anthrax the only disease which may thus lie latent in the soil for many years In this very same district, Woodlands, a devastating scourge of diphtheria was clearly attributable to the over manuring of some fields with refuse from the local meatpreeevering works. The fields were famous for thenluxuriant pastures, but it was at a heavy price It is well known that germs of typhoid and similar zymotic diseases may remain hidden under the soil for many years, ready at any moment to start into activity.