GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1069, 7 March 1911, Page 8

GENERAL FARMING NEWS.

Feilding is said to bo sending away more sheep. this season than last season. Tho railway "arrangements are taxed ! to cope with the traffic, and cattle trucks have had to be used at times. ".Mr.; D.".'M.",Suthn;l<lht!,;",a Canterbury breeder, has imported a.valuable draft of Border Leicester sheep from Home. Tho animals were mainly from the "Westside ■ and Sandyknowo flocks. The ewe arrived safely, but the ram died six hours out from Auckland. A ewe which scored championship honours before sailing for New Zealand lambed twins on Quail Island. ■ •;•■ »•«. '_>^ An interesting sidelight on pasteurisation is told by Mr. C. J. Reakes in his report on tho progress of tho Glen Oroua experiments. Ho says-. 'Tor a period of a few weeks, during which warm weather witt warm nights prevailed gonerally a few of tho suppliers complaining of troulilo arising as a result of the separated milk having to be taken from tho factory while still at a high temperature. They found that when they reached home it was too hot to feed to tHeir calves, and that when stored until the following morning 'it became soured, and, consequently,, unsuitable for calffeeding. Other, suppliers who had a good water supply at their farms, and were able to cool the milk down quickly had no trouble to report. At 1 the same timo the difficulty experienced by the few who complaind was a real one, though it vanished when cooler nights became the rule. It had been thought possible that complaints would also have arisen as a result of drivers of milk-carts being splashed by the hot milk when driving home; but nothing of this kind has comb under notice." In England during last year tho following were among the difficulties the farmers had to contend with:—Anthrax, 149G outbreaks, attacking 1770 animals; foot-and-mouth disease, 2 outbreaks, affecting 15 animals, (long sinco stamped out); glanders, 355 outbreaks, attacking 1022 animals; sheep scab, 551 outbreaks; swine fever, 1508 outbreaks, causing the slaughter of 15,513 pigs. The number of outbreaks of anthrax has increased in the last thrco years, 1317 being the number for 1009. Glanders, on the other hand, has as steadily declined in prevalence, the outbreaks in 1007 having numbered 85t. Sheep scab lias fluctuated, but is greatlv reduced in prevalence. Swine fever outbreaks in 1907 numhercd 2330, and thero has been a steady decrease up I to 1910.