Polled-Angus Records.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 143, 29 March 1909, Page 4

Polled-Angus Records.

It is always claimed for the polledAngus, by admirers of the breed, that when it comes to a question of actual beef productino, as weighed on a butcher's block, the not judged by show standards in the ring, the black Scotch cattle can always hold their own. A gentleman interested in this matter who has been following the results of the principal fat stock shows in Great Britain and the United States, sends a list of the wins of the polled-Angus and their crosses, and they undoubtedly constitute a vWy fine performance: Birmingham—Best yearling, best cross, best Scot, best butcher's animal, championship of show. Norwich— Best ox and reserve, best heifer and reserve, champion and reserve. Smithfield, London—Best yearling and reserve, best steer and reserve, best heifer and reserve, champion and reserve, champion carcase. Edinburgh— Best steer, best beifer, champion and reserve. Dublin—Champion and reserve champion. Chicago—Champion animal champion car lot, champion stud herd, champion carcase.

Greater attention is ilkely to paid to pig raising in New Zealand this year than last year. The number of pigs condemned as diseased has been disheartening to farmers; but the steps taken to prevent disease by feeding only pure skim milk, will have a good effect. There is no reason why, with judicious handling, pigs should not be kept free from tuberculosis. Molasses is of value as feed for pigs, but the value does not lie so much in the nutrition it contains, as in its making the food it is mixed withmore palatable, and thus more readily acceptable and digestible.

It may not be known to many of our readers that to Mr J. Allen, of Waingaro, the Romney breeder, belongs the honour of taking the first Show Sheep over the Main Trunk line. The consignment consisted of the imported ram, "Earl Godwin," three times champion of Hawkes Bay; Record the 17th, successful in four shows as a two tooth and champion, at last Cambridge Show. There were also 17 ewes, all of them the best blood procurable from the noted breeders. E. Short, of Panarangi and Grey Bros,, of Masterton, besides being winners at Hawkes Bay, Gisborne, Palmerston North and Masterton, secured every prize they were entered for at Cambridge Show, on the 10th inst.. being 4 firsts, 2 seconds and annexing the champions for both Ram and ewe. Mr Allen writes us that this Season's rams are all cleared out at satisfactory prices, and that he will again notify in our columns the next season's rams he will have for sale.

The Arabs of Sahara reckon their flocks most valuable property. They drink the ewes milk regularly. Like the Syrian sheep, the Arab sheep are very prolific, generally lambing in spring and again in autumn. These two breeds are probably allied one to the other.

Captain Burnaby, in his famous book, "A Ride to Khiva," says that "sheep make up the entire riches of the nomad tribes. A Kirghiz lives upon their milk during summer and autumn." Ewes fill the place of cows in Iceland, as many as a thousand being kept by large farmers. They run on the hills during the summer, and are boused during the long winter, writes Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. If there is any occupation that has a right to be dignified it is farming. There is no real aristocracy that has not been builded on the land.

No breed of draught horses is as uniform in type and colour as is the Suffolk. Even in America —the home of the Vermont — the tendency at present is towards merino sheep with a good fleece' and regular form, giving a good basis for mutton and an eauier sheep to shear.

By keeping the very ljo.it to propagate from the whole may be made of equal excellence, and in course of a few years numerous animals might be produced having excellent properties that now distinguish some few of the best.