BOOTS, £2 PER PAIR?

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1816, 31 July 1913, Page 7

BOOTS, £2 PER PAIR?

CATTLE AND HIDES DISAPPEARING,

A' prediction that boots may soon go up to .E2 per pail- was made by Jlr. Ewan Campbell, of AVanganui, who was elected president of thp Agricultural Conference yesterday. Mr. Campbell did not make the prediction baldly. Ho commenced by referring to tho decrease in tho number of sheep in New Zealand, and said that this was duo to tho fnct that land which uscicl lo bo employed for sheep-fattening was now being used for dairying. Ah efl'eot was a scaroity of cattle. For some timo tho price of cnttlo had been too high for exporting—almost famine price—and before long cattle exporting would bo a thing of tho past. All tin's was duo to the utilisation of fattening land for dairying. There had been an extraordinary rise in tho price of animal products all tho world over. Experience seemed to show that; with tho advance of intensivo farming there enmo « disappearance of animal life —"except the old cow." Just .fancy the expenso of keeping other animals on land from which cows could extract so .much wealth. Twenty years ago farmers' could get a capital prico for hides, anil tallow brought ISs, Now, tallow was up to 395.; and the averago prico of hides was 335., with the top price at £2 2s. Whero boots were now «C 1 4s. per pair, li 9 thought they would riso to Jc'i, and that in the lifetime of men and women now living. He said this because ho did not see where tlio world's supply of hides was going to bo obtained. A fewyears ago Germany had 30,000,000 sheep; to-day, 7,000,C00. This showed that intensive cultivation there had squeezed out tho animals. "If you realise what a man can do with an acre of land by vegetable production, and what lie can do with animals," he concluded, "you will see that the animals must go."