FARMING NOTES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5257, 28 March 1928, Page 1

FARMING NOTES.

THE VALUE OF lODINE.

(By

A.J.G.S.)

The principle that no superabundance,' of one essential will make up for the deficiency of another as applied to those things which Nature intends to be perfect, must be carried out if we wish to preserve the life, vigour, and utility essential to maximum production as called for to-day in human, animal, and plant lifeNature abhors substitution, but will at times tolerate compensation. The greatest problem facing the dairy farmer today is to prevent the organic breakdown of the animalh, from wh'ch he requires an eveir-i increasing return, and though feed gnown with the same regard to highest vitamin content is essential, its ultimate value depends upon proper assimilation of each part am] 1 parcel of food in the direction intended, and to this end the machinery must function properly, especially so to day, to deal with the greater demand on the animan for which man is calling. Hence the principle of perfect organisation has to be extended to food utilisation. To quote L. Bennsan, “the uppe)r crust of this planet is not everywhere a uniform blend of essential mineral element. In some soils, phosphatic rook is so abundant that it is, used for building material, whereas in parts of Cape Colony cattle languish, and are driven by inis,tinct to eat the 'bones of their dead in order to make up for- the want of phosphorus in their pastures. In the same way certain soils may have plenty of iodine, while in others there is a marked deficiency.” Then again, evidently quoting from Dr. Robert McCarrison, British Medical Journal, he says: “Indeejd, only a small proportion of the world’s face is adequately supplied.” That New Zealand; has bden deter mined as an iodine deficiency country, varying from intensely to slightly deficient, is now without question ; but what is still more important is

“where it fails disease is manifest,” and L. Bennsan’s logical conclusions ar© that the glands cannot function adequately without constant renewal of the store. There, are, then, two facts established, with which to begin a series of articles, so important, and of such immense possibilities when once; a farmer becomes interested and' grasps what can ; je done, -what has proved • to be done, no theory, plain simple facts, he will forget its connection with a commercial undertaking and realise that the future of successful stock-raising rests with what science is endeiavouring to teach combined with common-sense deductions. The first breath of life may start the machinery going. “Yet research has .shown that failure on the part of the thyroid inv'olves functional derangements of the other organs on internal secretion” (L. Bennsan Research), and, further, his deductions are : “That the thyroid can,not funct'on adequately without constant renewal of its store of thyroxin, its active principle, and f°r the production of thyroxin in amounts suffi'cient for the needs of the organism an, adequate amount of iodine is essential.”

The above is- verified by the following, provided by the latei Dr. Sidney Barwise in. his report of 1924 on the health of Derbyshire, in which he says : “It may be useful to enumerate briefly the parts thyroid -secietion (which really means iodine) plays in the economy of life : (a) It is necessary for effective metabolism, ami especially promotes respiratory exexchanges and physical growth : (b) it is specially required in the pregpant condition; (c) it is needed /to keep the skin and its appendages in. a healthy condition; (d) it Is required for the digestion, assimilation, and combustion of fats ; (e) it is required for. the metabolism of calcium (i.e., metabolism, change of food into living tissues or to excretion of waste) ; (f) it is needed to resist-Ahe invasion of microbes and to render harmless the toxins they produce. At the Roweilt Research Institute, Aberdeen, it was found in three carefully controlled experiments that the administration of very small amounts of potassium iodide for an average period of a fortnight led to the assimilation and retention of nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium in young growing pigs (L. C. Kelly). These results, wrote the investigation, point to ensuring that an efficiency of iodine is prosent in synthetic (the uniting of elements into a compound) rations which are presumed to contain essential constituents of food. Ho also mentions a feeding expe ( rinient on calves 'carried out at the Institute. A group of 12, to-whose ration potassium iodide was. added, gained, in the same time, 3%.cwt. more than a similar group iwliich had .a 'like ration but with no added idoine.

The foregoing will serve to establish the fact that not by fertilisation ‘only, in which transmission of minerals by plants to stock takes place, can we expect liealth-giving results, but iodine deficiency must be made good directly, and its combination with other minerals will leave nothing to chance. And in this way it is possible, through excretion, to supply some of the deficiency in a manner economically sure.