FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 90, 25 July 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY

NEW ZE«**XD APPLES IX LONDON

The experimental shipment of apples from the Nelson district, to have been guaranteed by the Department of Agriculture to the extent of Id per lb, reached London by the Paparoa on the 17th inst., under consignment to Messrs Sanderson, Murray and Co.. and were promptly unloaded and sent to the sale rooms (writes the Wellington Times' London correspondent on June 3rd). The shipment was by no means an unqualified success, and the prices realised were on the whole less than those ruling at the time for Tasmaniau and Australian apples. The appearance of a quantity of the fruit was spoiled by condensation, due, it is said, to the temperature at which the apples were kept on board ship being too low. They were carried at a temperature of from 33 to 34 degrees, rising occasionally i<> 3S degrees, whereas, according to spurts here, the normal temperature lor fruit in cold storage should be from 3t> to 42 degrees. Condensation did.not injure the apples seriously, but it gave them a damp and unattractive appearance, which io:d against them in the saleroom. Moreover, a number of them had been packed too loosely, with th.; result that they were bruisejl and discolored when turned out at tins end. Most of the pears included in. the shipment were damaged by transit. No .fault was found'with the cases in which the fruit was packed, or with the cold chamber on the Paparoa. Prices varying from 5s to lOs a box were realise.!. The shipment reached London at a time when there were heavy supplies on the market, no fewer than Ibu.OOO eases of fruit arriving that week from overseas—a circumstance which tended further to reduce prices. Although the New Zealand shipment was only partially successful, the faults discovered are such as can be remedied by experience. Thus if the fruit is sent over at a higher temperature, packed more carefully, and consigned in larger lots, there seems no reason why profitable prices should not be realised and an export trade built up.

King George has accepted the presidency of the Royal Agricultural Society (England). "The. prospects for next season are quite as bright as last year, as far as prices for our produce are concerned, and there is every probability that next season will be a record one."—Extract from the annual report of the Levin Dairy Company. "The dairy business has done a great deal for Tarana-ki," says Mr. James Berne, chairman of the Kaupokohui Dairy Co. "I remember when the bulk of the people had to go and gather fungus." • An important announcement recently made in connection with cattle-breeding in Rhodesia is that the Liebig Meat Extract Company, on the ad vie? of their experts, have bought 40(5,000 acres of ranching land in the country, and have acquired the option of buying up to 2,000.000 acres. When grade stamping was in voguii Victorian butter reached its maximum standard, but with the adoption of optional classification without stanipni:>; the standard steadily declined. In 1905-0 the percentage of superfine was 36.00; in 1906-7 it was 34.87; in 1007-8 it was 34.4.5; in 1008-0 it was 23.02, and this I season it is 25.06. The present average moisture content is 13.97.

Kansas has a stallion law, and the license certificate is the prominent venture in which the certificates are purebred, crossbred or grade, and the horse must be certified as sound and his pedigree and ownership duly placed with the State Live Stock Registry Board. Similar laws have been enacted in Canada, and the whole trend of the nest agricultural forces of the Continent is a towards eliminating the scrub horse. Some record prices for live stock at | I Chicago have been recently reported, j Choice fat pigs on one day made U. cem-s < per lb, the highest price ever reached, ' I and just double the price at the corre-1 | sponding date in 1909. On the same ; day the top price of lamb- was 8.0 cents per lb, a price never before attained for the same month; while some steel's, 7.4 cents, was also the highest rate for the month. These are live- ! i weight prices. ;

It is claimed as a result of testinc, culling and improved breeding of Danish dairy herds, that the yield of the Danish cows averaged in 1864 about So!b of butter-fat, in 1887 1161b, and in 100S 2201b. The export of home-produced butter from Denmark during the years 18651874 was about 130,000 c wt., while in

1005 it was 1,500.000cwt., in 1907 1,710.OOUewt., and in I'JOS 1,778,000c\vt. While the average yield of Danish cows is about 2Mb of butter, the average yield of the 40,000 cows in the Central I'nkm of Fimen was about 2851b, and the average yield of the best herd is more than 3301b of butter per cow. New Zealand Hereford breeders will be particularly interested in the following, which is an extract from the Live Stock Journal:—"lt used to be said that the white face of the Hereford cattle was accidentally introduced, the. breed until the latter part of the eighteenth century having been whole brown or red. Mr. P. Tully gave currency to the statement that in the stock of one of his ancestors, who lived at Huntingdon-in-Holmer, a favorite cow produced a whitefaced calf. Such a thing had never been known to occur before, and as a curiosity it was agreed that the animal should he kept and reared as a future sire. The progeny of this bull became celebrated for their white faces."

iJv. J. C. Richard, discussing in his "Natural History of Man" the hereditary character of acquired traits, tells the case of the horses bred on the tablelands of the Cordilleras. These "arc carefully taught a peculiar pace, which is a sort of running amide. After a few generations the pace becomes a natural'" one, young untrained horses adopting it without complsion. But what is still more curious is the fact that if these domesticated stallions breed with mares of the wild herds, which abound in the surrounding plains, they become the sires of a race to which the ambling pace is natural and requires no teaching." The vast importance of the live slock industry of Argentina is indicated bv the fact that out of a total of 397,350,528 dollars, gold, the value of the exports in pastoral products are credited with 153,548,351) dollars, or 38,429,800 dollars more than in 1908. The increase is mainly due to the development of the chilled meat enterprise, and the consequent increase in exports of hides and tallow. Wool made more money than in 1908, though the quantity was smaller. At one time the exports of pastoral products were vastly more important than those of agricultural products as distinguished from pastoral. Last year, however, the value of agricultural other than pastoral products was 230,508,996 dollars, gold, though this was about 11,000,000 dollars less than that of 1908. Among the imports those of live animals are charged at 1,454,943 dollars.