TUBERCULOSIS TEST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1207, 16 August 1911, Page 8

TUBERCULOSIS TEST.

A PRACTICAL fTGGESTIO.W [To llio Editor.] Sir,—Allow me to put my grievance in iront of your readers. Where arc we going to end if the above test ?oes on, . without the Government is sjoiii" to assist in this matter, ami not by the insufficient method, that they arc doing at present. Some weeks ago I applied to register my farm, and ke?p within bounds of the law of the country. The Stock Department stilt up their'veterinary surgeon ami dairy inspector, and arranged to come hack and lest my herd with the abovo test; and I may say tlint that is a very, severe test, because if tuberculosis , is there at oil it will re-act ou the animal, and if she goes three degrees over her normal temperature, she is condemned. I may s.iy that 1 got six of my best cows thrown out—cows that were a picture of health. 1 felt sorrow, (.0 see my cows thrown out, and did riot know how 1 was going to'get them replaced, so T n?l;cd the inspector where was this going to end. Supposing 1 went out. iuto the. open market, and got other cows at a large price (sny from .£" to ,£iU per cow), and then the inspector and veterinary surgeon come along and put. them through the same test! There can be nothing but ruin for the farmer if they are going on in this way! Also, why jump on one poor man, and then go miles to another. I asked them if they made a universal fe-st through the fanners, what would be the result ? (Thoir answer was just what I .expected it would be). They said it would bo ruin lo the country and also to the former. Then I said isn't it ruin to me? Hero you are taking away the best of my herd, and what am I getting; a paltry sum of .£1 per cow. Ifr. Editor, perhaps you, or perhaps some other reader of your paper, will be- aMo to ur«;e the, farmers ou to see if wo can not get. the Government (or the Reform Party) to put into their platform this sntjgootion of mine—l think it is practicable. I think the. Government would lie doing something practical to stamp out this disease if they would do this: Select throe farms in the different provinces of tho North Island (say one thousand acres each), mid stock them up with 400 heifo.rs on each farm, say from six months old, and keen them till they are rising three years old, and have them coining into profit at factory dates. Then the farmer who gets his .cows condemned, instead of getting the money from the St<ick Department, would get an order to go to the manager of this larm and get cows equivalent to the number that he got condemned, at the price of, say, X's 10s. por head, the farmer l:o pay the difference in value of the cows | according to his order. These heifers would bo all put through the tuberculosis test beforo they left the State farm; this would be a step in the right direction to try and keep the disease down. Now, a farm of this kind would l>e able to keep itself after it got started, as they would ho stocking it with young stock, and (hen fft-y arc growing into money every year; al-vi, it would bo the l;e=t of young heifers that they would buy. Tho farmer would bs very pleased to sell them their young stock from tho best of their cows, instead of bringing them into the open market. Of course, the Government buyer could buy from the open market, and if stock was gathering too quickly on the farm they could hold an • annual- sale; that, is to" ray, if they were rearing more cows thaul.h'e.number that were getting .condemned they could have an auuual sale of tho surplus "stock. . Perhaps some other reader of The Dominion will take up his pen and give his opinion on this subject, as all farmers are vitally interested in it seeing that, some day they may foal the'same as 1 do at present. Certainly there is room for improvement on'the above subject.—l am, etc., \X. ARCHIBALD. Levin..