THE RABBIT RECEDING.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 432, 15 February 1909, Page 5

THE RABBIT RECEDING.

■ .The few:rabbits...ivHich.are scattered- abbiit portions ~bf ■• Wairarapa, 'mainly fiver ~ banks and'rough bush; country, arp reported .to be very well, this season. : results are to the' satisfaction of the- farmers- and the Government stock officers. In a few years!; time the rabbit; in Wairarapa;should be 'almost extinct. .. ■; ;■. .'•' V ;is STERILISATION A MISTAKJE?! i

■ ;/ ■ PRIMROSE:HICONNELL'S VlEW.:' ;■■, W.i&T- well-known dairying'authority,-, lecturing • recently ,:. on London's milk -supply from a farmer's point of •view,' said ythat>it was..not the- number ■..of microbesfin the milk that mattered, but the.jspecies.' 1 . Of ;}3O species, affecting, milk and its products, only live could possibly-be ' injurious Ho ( v pu'blic; lealtE . The": number.'bf ■ millions of the others in a' glass' of milk was ■ of ,no: importance, apart, from.the fact; that some of them: were actually necessary';in the economy of the dairy. ;The food of.BOineVbf the most vigorour nations on:the:earth.was composed , :ot-milk '.that: 'was; "tainted.", from, a.bacteriologist's point of view. ' Every . variety"'of Vclieese swarmed many kinds of.microbesj-which must, ,be, present;, to make, its'; quality j.and-.flayo'jir... Yet .in .the. face .'of. ' all, : this .'there.:, were some 'who tried', to -make out : : 'th"at ',the /presence ;of. a ; microbes' ih'the.'; milk: .was 'inimical' io.. public: health, and .moved heaven and-, earth ;in .an attempt to;get the leeal powers.to do' the i them -from "'getting ■irita-^milk.:' .-Sterilisation and'.pasteurisatipn were : failures,: and ..they were failures just because 'all tho. microbes- in, the milk': were ■killed out-V Milk ceased'tb be palatable or a good: digestible, food ,when .deprived of the :life-.,action and the-babies' fed'/on,;thef same got. stunted.and ricketty, wjiile those.',that got a'.liberal supply—microbes, and all—throve on' it. ■:;.::., ,-'■:' "■':,-; Sir. rPrimrose! -M'.Gonnell, however,? appears ■to', havermistakeri- the object of sterilisation, as fthe: general '-public';regards; it.i ..;The. man .who,. : uses.sterilised milk , .does so'because he; kno^s-ror: that'all-the pathogenic., igerhis— tKoße^ivßi^h.' cause/tuberculosis, ty-. :phmd,:influenza, the dj'phtheria due-fo.mam-the milk pay have.'cc-ntained, have; been killed. He' is willing to sacrifice ■some: of : the. .wholesomeness of "the; milk for :the;sa£e'of safety..:.;.';". v ■^•'■ ; : .