FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 158, 13 October 1910, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY

Writing to a contemporary, a correspondent suggests that two district dairy companies' suppliers should combine 011 a scheme for securing the services of a veterinary surgeon for the district by having one shilling a cow per annum deducted from the bonus. He sets down the two companies' suppliers at 300, with 15,000 cows, and the present value at £150,000. At Is a cow the amount realised would be £750 a year, and would attract a firstclass M.R.C.V.S., he contends, and would surely be a good investment against losses seeing that there would be over £150,000 of live stock at stake. The jiew award for dairy workers made by the Arbitration Court will come into force on Monday, and will remain in force for at least -three years. The principal changes are : —Minimum wage for creamery managers, £2 ss, with usual allowances ; minimum wage in factory, £2 2s; hours of work in butter factories not to exceed 00 hours per week from October Ist till March 31st, and 50 hours for the balance of the year. In the old award the minimum* wage for creamery managers was t'2. and the lowest wage in factories. £1 17s (id; the hours for butter factories were 70. The union's application for preference lias not been granted. At present there are 11 dairy instructors holding State positions at work in New Zealand. Three are located in Taranaki, one at Wanganui. one at Palmerston North, one in the Wairarapa, one in the Waikato, one North of Auckland, one in Canterbury, one in Otago, and one in Southland.

The heavy mortality amongst hoggets in the Wairarapa and Forty-Mile Bush districts lias been the subject for investigation by Mr. W. W. H. Edwards, of the Stock Department. As a result of his enquiry, Mr. Edwards has come to the conclusion that the a hoggets are affected with a disease known ,aS "Gid," or "Sturdy," which is very prevalent in the Old Country. It arises from the ova of the tapeworm, which is deposited on the pasture by dogs. The ova is taken from the herbage by the sheep and developed, in the intestines, from whence it is carried to the brain, where 1 cysts are formed as large as a bantam's egg. A practical method of dealing with the trouble is to eradicate tapeworms from the dogs by administering periodical doses of areca-nut in castor oil. Recent files from Rio de Janeiro report the appearance of a disease among cattle which hitherto experts have been unable to identify. Milch cows are the principal sufferers. The animal attack-, ed becomes dispirited, and sta,nds with its neck stretched out, with dull eyes, refusing to graze, and displaying symptoms of fever. The first sign of the beast being sick is a diminution in the supply of tnilk. It would appear that the disease is traceable to some affection, possibly parasitic, of ihe horn, as it has been found in '.several instances that sawing off the horns saved the animal's life. Unless this is done thi malady eventually extetidsto the brain, resulting in death. Tliisr disease is, so far at least, confined to the herds in the State# of Parahyha Ceara. Shearing is now general all over the Timaru district, and, all' shearers are being paid £1 per hundred. It is reported from Wyndham .that the "red-water" trouble has re-appear-ed in the dsiry JierflS) as a result 01 which several caws }iav<* <lled. The potato blight has'ag&'n made ltd appearance' this season, 1 3&Vs the Tauranga Times, and' 'is';<lttiving its mark in both the town arid, cotintry. "I found, 'or''rather' l Jeahit, that butttr in 'Frisco 2s 6d a lb., and as. far aS V 'ctuiltl learn none is sent there/' said Mh H '&'k,Scales, of Wellington, on his rfetifrh : 'from abroad. The prospects 1 ,of the season throughout Hawke's Bky 'aVe said to be excellent. The Jambing;hi.Y b,een a good one, and the mortajity' jfnim the subsequent rough weather itqf'-So great 'as 1 was feared. Those engfeti in dairying are in good heart,', as> qwifig to the open winter and -plentiful,, giajii, cows have come into profit in ' good condition. Sheep men are fairlv Confident that wool will maintain its viii'ue, a'nd,'with fail export prices, are looking'forward to a prosperous year. 1 1 I

A Palmerston resident Ift i'received a letter from a friend .Canada stating that the country is ifi t an extremely flourishing condition, and that during the late harvest season latoui;, was at a premium. The letter also stated that dairying is now becoming an .important industry, and that in the near Mutt New Zealand will probably find a more serious competitor in the Hpme markets than the latter country at present. Says the Manawatu correspondent of the Otago Witness: Now that all the farmers have marked their lambs, after careful inquiry I have come to the conclusion that the average percentage liais been as good as has ever been experienced in the district. Among those who raise fat lambs there are many flocks where from 100 to 120 pedr cent, have been docked, so that the general average cannot be far short of 100, and there is no reason why the increase in the hills should not be equally as good. So far the lambs have done well. We may therefore expect a big increase in. the numbers of fat lambs to reach the factories during the coming season. Of course the weather conditions for the next few months have a big say in the matter. I The man who is handling anything up to 40 cows should instal the milking [ machine. When the first cost is worked off it will earn good money in what it saves in wages. Cows are money in the Old Country. 'Forty-five of the'Brandon herd of Lin--1 colnshire Red Shorthorns, owned by Mr. John Ingram, of Grantham, sold recently for £22 each. In regard to feeding for milk production, there is more room for improvement than in anv other direction ; there should be a big banking in the silo when fodder grasses are plentiful, track of the ration that is fed to the growing heifers and to the dry cows. Washing the udders with warm water before milking takes little time and costs nothing. It is worth more than it costs, and will make more for thfi lmI provement of the. health of the aniniais.