Farming Affairs. Continued.
SHEEP INDUSTRY COMMISSION Provincial executives of Federated Farmers have now the duty of collecting evidence for presentation before the Royal Commission on the sheep industry. Certain directions and suggestions have accordingly been circulated from head office and provinces are urged to procure definite evidence in regard to the trend in carrying capacity on the various classes of lands. The Commission is bound to require details of the proportion of both dry stock and cattle carried now as compared with previous years. The use of cattle on North Island hill country is bound to be examined. The commission will want to know the return from cattle compared to that Jbfrom sheep, and the possible effect of attic in preventing erosion. Farm Costs Trends in the various items of farm costs will, too, be of 'importance, longterm trends in particular. Similarly with changes in the percentages of net income as related to the capital involved, be required. Those changes ’ will indicate the comparative position of farming and other industries. Definite evidence will also be required of the aggregate changes due to loss of fertility on representative properties. It will probably be necessary to establish that the increases in production on the more easily worked land has marked the fall in production on the poorer lands. Review of Labour The labour position must be examined thoroughly. Examples will probably be quoted of properties where the control of scrub, for example, is so great as to discourage intending buyers. In the South Island, mustering costs in the high country will be needed, and overall evidence should.be prepared relating the sheep farmer’s income to returns. Evidence is more important than opinion in the examination and provinces arc asked to concentrate on giving evidence on the particular problems affecting their areas, in addition to general evidence on the industry. Specific examples should be collected of land that has gone out of production over a period, and of farms reverting to scrub or otherwise deteriorating despite “book” profits because, of lack of maintenance. Low profit margin farms should be used in evidence and examples of farms where the cost of deferred maintenance in the form of deterioration of farm buildings, fencing, machinery, etc., more than set-off the “ book ” profits. All such examples should be supported by accounts and personal evidence of the farmers concerned.
Orders of the Bath.
If wo turn back the pages of history wo find many items which reveal strange ideas on personal hygiene. Peter, the Hermit, who r.ecruited the first Crusade thanked God that water had not touched his body, for forty years. Queen Isabella of Spain boasted that she had had only two baths in her life —one when she was born and the other when she married Ferdinand. A copy of a 200-year-old college catalogue of a school in Franco for daughters of the nobility reveals the following; “Pupils are entitled to have one set of underclothing, one pair of stockings and two handkerchiefs per month. Towel: pupils one every week; nuns one every two weeks; Footbaths: pupils one a month; nuns only by special authorisation of the Superior; Complete P>aths: three a year (May, June, July).”
In 1842 the American State of Massachusetts, ever eager to guard, her citizens against any newfangled contraption passed a law which provided that if a person wished to bathe more than once a week a doctor must certify that he needed it and was capable of standing it. Philadelphia once had a law forbidding bathing between November Ist and March 15th. It remained in force for many years.
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Lake County Mail, Issue 14, 27 August 1947, Page 5
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597Farming Affairs. Continued. Lake County Mail, Issue 14, 27 August 1947, Page 5
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