GOVERNMENT AND HERD FOUNDING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 863, 8 July 1910, Page 8

GOVERNMENT AND HERD FOUNDING.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Complaints are often heard about the Government or Agricultural department, or Department for Industries competing against private enterprise. In somo cases 1 am prepared to admit that the State may have encroached, but in the case of the dairy industry the Department has not gone far enough, while in others it has done more than its share ■with poor results as far as the Dominion is concerned generally. In the first place, the State should help those who try to help themselves, as farmers and wouldbe settlers are doing, and should be prepared to further advance this industry. I maintain that the dairy industry ul; tlie present■stage has a prior claim to that of any other for assistance from the State. " This industry is only iu its infancy as far as New Zealand is conjerned. We have the reputation of producing us good an tirticle as any sent to ihe Home markets, and in some instances have obtained the highest prices. This is i special recommendation of what can be produced in this "Fair land of Ours," and so far from the Home markets.

Now, if we can produce these results ,wilh the article we huve, what may be obtained if better milk yielding animals rwere general throughout the Dominion? 1 don't wish to disparage the farmer and Settler with the animals they have, but only to point out that if he could grow two heads of wheat where he liad'. only .one before; in.other words, if he had one good dairy cow, producing tlia same results as he now gets from two ordinary cows, liow much better it must be for him. He eaves time in milking, saves in grass, housing and rugging, and, finally, has one good animal in good condition instead of two half-fed animals and unsatisfactory results.

Again, there are JeTseys and Jerseys. One must not run away with the idea that because he has a Jersey cow it' must necessarily be a good one; there are bad Jerseys as well as good ones, and tills is :where the. State or the Agricultural Department can save the situation by coming to the rescue and having breeding establishments or depots, breeding only of those of pedigree and test, art! importing same to maintain the standard required, for disposal to farmers and settlers at .reasonable prices. The settler would linow that he was buying only of the best pedigree and tested stock. Some Jerseys give yon a return of 8 to 101b of butter a week for three or four months in the year, then fall away to 6 to 41b. per week, but we want to get Jerseys giving 12 to 141b. of butter a Wtek for six to eight months of the year, or a yearly average yield of butter from 370 to 4501b. Even this result is not'by any means the top under best conditions. One must not run 'away with the idea that because I have a pedigree and tested Jersey cow I should get so and so. Feeding, honsing, and climate, not forgetting kind treatment, are necessary and essential if you want best results.

Some remarks of what a good Jersoy or grade cow may produce may not be out of place here, and in support of my statement they have at the experimental "State farm at Wereroa the famous grade cow "Mary," which gave a yield or 500 odd lb of butter for a period extending over nine months. This will illustrate what can be obtained by judicious selection qven in a grade cow. What may we expect from systematic.breeding and, selection of the pedigree and tested cow? Again, we have ILr. Judy's Jersey eojy,. two years old, producing'at three different tests, i.e., 8.8 and 9.7 per cent, of butter-fat, certified by the dairy factory manager. Again, we have Landseer Pacific Pearl at three years and four months old fiving 90151b. of milk, yielding 6591b. utter-fat, . equal to 7751b. of butter. Other Tecords superior even to those quoted are on record. Farmers and others will therefore see that it pays to have the best, if only one at a time. And with the State or the Agricultural • Department co-operating, what might be achieved? In my next, with your kind permission, I will point out to the Agricultural Department a way out of the difficulty in competing .with private enterprise.—l am,, etc., A. TIRIHEI.

HAWERA WINTER SHOW. (By TclecrwDh—Press Association.; Hawera, July 7. Visitors and exhibitors are already arriving ill Hawera for the Dominion Dairy Show. Space totalling 38,000 feet will be occupied by exhibits. A number of applications for space had to be refused. The concrete building will bo finished in time for the opening on Wednesday nesl. The Hon. T. Mackenzie officiates.

Jlr. William Nottnge, of Bermondsey, in JB2B made a very interesting report on the progress of English sheep-raising and wool development since tho beginning of the century. In the year 1800 he was ordered to inako a trial of several different sorts of skins. Southdown skins killed in London, when at full maturity, produced about 3Jlb. oi wool per skin; now ,(18!iti) they produce from 1 to 4{lb., and wo iind a corresponding increase in weight from the fanners' fleeces generally in Kont and those parte. Where tho weight has increased thero is always a less quantity of fine wool and a larger quantity of coarse. There is a great deal less fine wool grown now than there was -twenty years back, but the sheep now kept by farmers generally are improved—in size, in the produce as to quantity as applicable to carcass, and also piore wool, but not of so Dure a duality.