FARM NOTES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4687, 14 April 1924, Page 4

FARM NOTES.

Bid RAISING. SOUTHERN CHARGE REFUTED. Tlie president of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association (Mr R. E'. Alexander), in his address at the annual meeting of the society, ha<l some interesting remarks to make uppn the subject of pig-raising. He declared that the small amount of export business the Dominion has done ip the past was attributable o the independent attitude of the few engaged in the industry. The right kind of pigs, he declared, were not reared, and the wrong kind of bacon was exported. He could see no reason why at least ten millions of the fifty millions sterling annually paid by the people of the United Kingdom for pork and bacon should not be captured by New Zealand. Commenting upon Mr Alexander':' remarks the Southland Times of March 25 declared editorially: "Evidently the Meat Board is giving the question some attention, and the result may be to create an interest in a trade that has hitherto been sadly neglected. It is common knowledge that some years ago'pig-breeding was ‘ regulated ’• hitp extreme unpopularity. Reasonable inspection is indispensable, but inspection was overdone, or at anyrate was too arbitrarily and much too suddenly applied. As a result the number of pigs in the Dominion decreased.’’ THE DEPARTMENT’S ATTITUDE. " These remarks," declared the Director of the Live Stock Division, "are misleading,'as no arbitrary system oi inspection was instituted by the Department, and the diminution of the number of pigs in the Dominion was not the result of any action whatever of the Department. If memory does not play me false, the slump was caused owing to the Australian market ’falling below what was considered a payable l level, and as expoit prices ceased to pay, breeding naturally largely ceased also. With reference to the inspection, the system of inspection adopted by the Department has not been changed, and animals are dealt with according to the degree of freedom from diseased or other conditions to which they may be found to be effected. The point, however, must not be forgotten that as regards pork for export to the United Kingdom the provisions of th? foreign- meat regulations of the United Kingdom’ require that a certificate must accompany all pork imported from any country whatever, showing that it was derived from animals found on inspection to be entirely free from tubercular disease. This regulation came into force a number of years ago, and possibly the necessity for strict compliance with <• created at the time some misapprehension as to its application, in so far as the certification of pork for expoi t to the United Kingdom was concerned. To place the blame for the decrease which occurred upon the system of inspection is so absurd that I cannot allow it to pass unnoticed. With re fcrence to the question of building up an increased export trade in pork, the Department has for some years past, been conducting a campaign by instructional and other propaganda with a viejv to improving the position as regards the animal ‘ what pays the rent.’ and with a considerable amount of success, as the improved position shows. An instructor in swine husbandry is attached .to the Live Stoca Division of the Agricultural Department, and his efforts are wholly directed to the work of educating the farmer in the best methods of breeding. feeding, and. management of. pigs generally with a view to producing a better class of article both for home and export consumption.” POULTRY AS A SIDE LINE. The number of poultry in New Zealand at the taking of the 193 i census was found to be 3,991.00’9, an increase of 525,370 over the number for the ' 1910 census, when the total was 3,465,638. These figures include fowls 3,941,567, ducks 379,988, geese 46 231, and turkeys 83,220. The statistics of 1921 also showed that though poultry farming as a definite branch exists to a small extent, poultry keeping is generally merely carried on as a side line.. It was found that the number of flocks with less than twelve birds was 43,913 ; under 25, 54,130 ; under 50. 32,180; under 100, 2102 ; under 200, 422 ; under 500, 71 : under 1000, 8 ; under 2000, 5 : under 3000 and over, 2. The average number of fowls per flocks was only two dozen, and the total number of

households keeping poultry was 143,993. The figures arc official, having been taken from the New Zealand Year Book.