FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 54, 25 August 1911, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY

BUYERS AND SELLERS. )

A large number of buyers were in Hawera on Wednesday endeavoring to come to terms with the dairy companies for their output. Among them were Mr. R. Ellison (London representation of the National Dairy Association), Mr. S. Turner (Lonsdale), Mr. R. M. Drummond (Joseph Nathan and Co., Ltd.), Mr. Bray (Kearley and Tonge), Mr. T. Gray (Wright and Stephenson), Mr. Buskeridge (Lane and Co.), and Mr. White (Lovell and Christmas). As far as could be gathered, no extraordinary offers were being made, but business has already been done in other places at 5%d for cheese and lid for butter, and at these prices agents appear to be willing to enter into contracts. Some buyers refuse to see anything remarkable in the present prospects, and find nothing in the reports lately to hand with regard to bad seasons is •ther butter and cheese producing countries to warrant any expectation that prices at Home will show any considerable advance. Conditions cliange so rapidly, said one of the agents, that it would be very dangerous to give prices which even the present state of' the market may apto justify,'as a decline in prices may mean'the loss of many thousands. His*own firm had, he said, lost in «ne such ease,£l2,ooo. An opinion was expressed about the proposal that all the National Dairy Association should sell through a combine by a buyer representing an outsSide firm. "We have," he said, "3000 customers, and rather than go to; the combine we would take steps* to supply these customers with Australian and or some other kind;.pf butter." Firms .of the. same standing as, those in the combine would, according to this representative, refuse te; accept their supplies in *his way ( and would prefer to, do without New Zealand butter. It appears that the various' dairy- companies are exercising their own discretion, whether in the National Dairy Association or not, and | it was reported on Wedneslay that the Glen Oroua factory had disposed of onehalf of its output to the combine, and the remainder to other firms.

"Elevenpence for butter here means," remarked an agent, after using his pencil for a few moments, "a cost to the buyer by the time he has met all the charges of about 115s per cwt before it is landed on the Home market." From this it would seem that the retail price must 'be fairly high, to allow a margin of profit. This, of course, is the case as it appears from the buyer's point of view. Another point made was that while the labor war at Home may have forced up the prices of foodstuffs, the spending power of the people has been reduced. Apparently there is a disposition on the part of some companies, especially as the prices offered by straight-out buyers are, in view of the optimistic reports coming to 'hand, little, if anything, better than ordinary to go in for open consignment, and one agent in Hawera on Tuesday, representing a firm that does this class of business, Messrs H. A. Lane and Co., secured for open consignment the output of the Hawera factory.--Star.

GOATS AND NOXIOUS WEEDS. The experiment tried by Mr. J. Moore, late Marlborough Stock Inspector, on the scenic reserve at the, Pelorus Bridpe, lias proved beyond question that in ttie Angora goat we have a means of coping with that formidable pest, the bramble or blackberry. A portion of the reserve used as a goat paddock was, when Mr. Moore took it in hand, one of the worst patches of bramble in the Pelonis district. Now it is a wooded park-like enclosure, bounded by the Nelson coach road and the deep rocky gorge of the Pelorus river, and it is' free from the noxious weed that was rapidly converting it into an impenetrable jungle. ' Whep we consider the area now overrun by bramble, we can at once perceive that extermination by the paddocking process is out of the question, and that some other way of bringing the goat to bear upon the pest must be discovered. A flock of common goats kept by the late Mr. Simonsen, near Canvastown, and allowed to ran at large, fed almost exclusively on briars and brambles, though grass wa.s plentiful where they ran, thus proving that the browsing animal can live an 4 thrive where the grazing animal, like the sheep, could not exist. There is only one feasible way of coping with bramble briar and other ligneous weeds: goat farming must become an industry like sheep-farming. We must utilise the pests we cannot get rid of.

Before settlers will embark on goatfarming, they must be satisfied it will pay.' It is'well known that for mohair there is practically an unlimited demand, and, compared with wool, it fetches a high price. Keeping goats, for the fleece alone, is not good enough. We know what sheep-farming was before the frozen meat trade started, and when flock-owners were mainly dependent on wool. To make goat-farming pay, the flesh of the Angora goat must be brought into general use. It is groundless prejudice that keeps it out of the markets. Some years ago a friend told me that, being given a nice-looking leg of mntton, she cooked and ate of it, and found it good, but, learning some time after that it was a leg of a goat, she became quite ill. It will surprise many to hear that in parts of France people have a similar unreasonable objection to sheep.

Gilbert Hamilton, the well-known author and landscape painter, tells of some servants who gave their mistress notice to leave because she asked them to eat mutton—dirty meat, as they called it. In the Tinted States, where the Angora goat was introduced to keep down scrub, goat-fanning has become a very important industry, millions of goats being now annually shorn, and thousands of carcases being brought to market. The rroat venison, as it is sometimes called, fetches a higher price than ordinary mutton. In parts of Ireland, where goats were kept, kid was regularly used by well-to-do folk, and was by many considered better than lamb.

All over the country blocks of bush laud have been felled, burnt oft', sown with grass seed, and fenced in order to keep sheep, two or three to the acre being considered remunerative, in our bramble-infested districts it would only be necessary to enclose a block of hind in order to start goat-farming. Goats are not as easily confined as sheep, and require different management, but these are points on which I must allow others to descant, my object being to call attention to the Angora industry. If it is made payable in the United States, surely it can be made payable here. Instead of annoying settlers or attempting to enforce an utterly useless Noxious Weeds Act, would it not lie better to encourage goat-farming by leasing blocks of the infested land to 'persons willing to embark in the industry, or by assisting settlers in some other way?— Joshua Rutland, Canvastown, Marlborough, in the Dairyman.