The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY. MARCH 21, 1911. SCARCITY OF CATTLE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 March 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY. MARCH 21, 1911. SCARCITY OF CATTLE.

I In a pastoral community such as ours, the reported likelihood of dearer meat for next winter is less cause for concern than it is in cities such as Wellington. There is a fair proportion of the Levin and Shannon population that is sure to find clearer meat making an appreciable difference to their household expenses; but inasmuch as our two chief towns have their prosperity interwoven so closely with the success of the pastoralists aiul agriculturists of this district, tho small additional! expense will fie borne uncomplainingly. There is, no-no the less, a cause for grave concern in the circumstances which have led up to the position now being developed. The persistrin t slaughter of newly-born calves throughout the dairying districts of the North Island has contributed very largely towards the great scarcity of butchers' beeves: and it is time for the settlers of these parts, and of all dairying districts, to face the present position squarely, and consider whether they are not following a financially unsound practice when they neglect to rear the calves. Years ago it was found to he cheaper to buy dairy cows tha»M to rear them. It is equally true that it was nrophesied, years a so. that the practice would lead up to a time and condition of affairs when sufficient calves for dairying requirements would lie unobtainable. The prophets of disaster found themselves regarded as Cassandra was, of old: and the j slaughter of the calves has gone on, ! in a scare of dairying districts, year

j after year. Scarcity of 'butchers' beeves marks the arrival of only an i advance force from the army of potential troubles. If the dairy far- ] nier (in the aggregate) will be warned oven now, he may avert the further-off hut more serious stage of the present trouble; an insufficiency of dairy stock to replace the natural wastages in the dairy herds. The position is a serious one indeed, and any widespread failure in the supply of young stock would mean disaster to New Zealand's dairying industry. A pronouncement on the matter by the Live Stock Division of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture might be of great value to farmers and the whole community and it seems to us that <i" the department could go thoroughly into tho case and. publish its investigations and: deductions in the departmental journal, a very good end would be served.