AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1911, Page 12

AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.

THE REPORTED BEEF TRUST.' The Sydney Mail is of opinion- that tho Beef Trust will have a harder row to hoe in the colonies, even if it does decide to employ its millions of capital, than it may h& inclined to suppose. If (says the Mail) it tackles tho proposition after all tho thyeats of Government interference, it is not lacking in pluck. It will find it a vastly different matter making headway in in the Argentine or even in North America than in Atistralia. It will have tho publio of all shades of opinion out of sympathy with it, and it will have the sentiment of co-operation to battle against. In New Zealand the reception will be equally warm. The Prime Minister in the Dominion threatens to nationalise the whole of the meat industry if that is necessary to defeat the Trust. But that would indeed be a big undertaking, and while it might be preferable to the operations of the Trust, such action would carry with it many serious objections. State Premiers in Australia have also threatened action if necessary, so that between the lot the Trust looks like having a poor chance of doing very much squeezing in this country. The chances are much brighter to squeeze Australia from without. This can be accomplished by using the enormous power which the Trust has gathered to itself both in England and in America. To a great extent we are powerless to resist its maohinations at Home, excepting that some Imperial sentiment might be aroused in Englaaid by Australian influence to show how unfairly the combine is acting towards Australian competitors, and how it is extorting in Great Britain from the consumers. Australia can do some good by setting out to regulate its London trade on better lines than it has adopted in the past. Our meat is as good in a general sense as the Argentine, and if we only take the pains to put it up properly there is no need to fear even the Beef Trust in the open market. The Trust is not built in the way that it is likely to make large losses to squeeze us out of the market because' we blocked it in Australia* for all the time it has the Home producer of meat to face, and he is by far the largest purveyor of John Bull's own wants. So that after all there is not a great deal to be scared at. Australasia wants organisation at this end, with plenty of co-opera-tion, better methods of control at the other, and some aptitude for appealing to John Bull to remember the Calf in the southern hemisphere. The Taranaki Herald says that th© po« tato grub is already in that district, a representative having been shown a specimen of locally-grown potatoes riddled by the grub. Those potatoes, when dug a little over a week before and bagged, showed no signs of infection, but when seen all were more or less infected. A correspondent o£ a Taranaki paper «ays that the recent rain was welcome, but it came too late to keep the milk supply up. "The season has been a very short one, _ he says. This year the cattle are not looking too well to begin the winter, and most of the farmers are feeding their cows on corn to keep the milk supply up as much as they can, but still the yield goes down." An Edinburgh dairyman, who was rocently charged with selling morning milk which only showed 2.32 per cent, of but-ter-fat waa acquitted. In this case an appeal was made £b the cow, and the analysis of the milk takon direct from the udder corresponded with that of Slie sample. The position taken up by the respondent was that exhaustive enquiries by means of analyses were made a number of years ago by Dr. Stevenson Macadam, and these all showed that in cases of city cows it was impossible, with the best available management, to maintain (ho morning milk drawn at 3 a.m., after an interval of 13 hours, at a standard of 3 per cent, butterfat. The respondent, therefore, knew that all he could do was to use his best jndgmentin buying his cows, in feeding them, and in housing them, and that his duty to the public was entirely discharged when he sold them the genuine produot of these cows. There was absolutely nothing abnormal in the cows or their treatment, as was admitted by the prosecutor. Tho Judge who heard the case was plainly antagonistio to tho dairyman, but h© could only give the verdict in light of the evidence. Far the largest consignment of apples ever shipped from Victoria in one steamer was sent away in the steamer Pora, which left last week for the United Kingdom. The consignment consisted of 32,000 cases, a number which is greater than the whole of Victoria's exports eleven years ago. A New_ South Wales resident has patented in the Commonwealth and New Zealand a callapsible butter box of a neat, durable^ and labour saving order. The device _is exceedingly simple. Made of three-eighth New Zealand white pine, it is claimed to Be the lightest box on the market. The four sides of the box are of equal measurements. Tho sides are grooved and fitted into grooved corners, with" the top and end pieces nailed to the corners, eight nails being sufficient to hold the box intact as against over forty in the present nailed box. The whole when together is" perfectly rigid and vyce-like. It has been put to the most severe handling possible, as boxes have been shipped to Sydney from the Clarence full of butter in the ordinary way and arrived there in sound condition —one of the boxes oven going the length of falling from the top of a loaded wagon on to the metalled road, with no other damage than a crack along ono of the sides. At present two sizes are made — the ordinary for export purposes (561b), and the local (281b). The news that in consequence of the> dearness of. food- in Switzerland tho Government, after prolonged deliberation, has consented to the importation of frozen meat from 'overseas is of considerable importance to Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Buergi, the experts sent some time ago to London, warmly recommended the importation. The duty will be 25 francs per 100 kilograms, which later will probably be reduced to 10 francs. At the higher rate the duty is something over Id per lb, but even after meeting such a charge colonial mutton could be sold at a price much lower than that which must now be paid for meat of similar q ality in Switzerland. Sheep are being sent forward to tho freezing works in South Canterbury faster than they can be dealt with, and m consequence there has been a blockage at the works on several occasions lately. Farmers have all been wanting to get their sheep arway in a hurry owing to shortage of feed. It is a somewhat booming market for pedigree pigs in America just now. Pork has been at prices which curtail consumption. The publio has a right to rebel when a rasher of bacon reaches a. prohibitive price, says the Breeders' Gazette. There is room for material expansion in pig breeding, but, as usual, the country seems rushing headlong toward another ora of over-production. The American farmer seems to seek either a feast or a famine. Neither is conducive to the best digestion. So intent is the farmer in hie chase after swirie that he is putting the cattle situation on his blind side. That eye, will be "opened presently, but the operation will have cost him money that could have been easily made. "This creamery has practically mado the district," said a speaker at the opening of the new well of tho Springston creamery, Canterbury. "Before the creamery was started, tho district was sparsely settled and the people so poor that thoy could not support a school or send their children to school decently clad. The cheques from the creamery were a groat help to them, and the district soon, became more closely settled and the people better off. Now that tho creamery has been improved by obtaining such a fine flow of water, the district ought to go ahead very rapidly." News comes from Charleville, in the western portion of Queensland, of a great droving feat, which reminds us that that romantic profession is not yet extinct. Mr. 'Albert Williams arrived at the Millie boundary in charge of a mob of 2606 head of cattle, which he and his mates had driven across tho continent. They cam© from Lissadalo and Argyle Downs btations, West Australia, and travelled over 2400 miles. Tho trip was particularly roufl* . I