FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1917, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

•it is reported, and from"'the right quarter, that the white pine firms who have been supplying dairy factory companies with cheese and butter boxes that they intend advancing the price cither a .penny or penny half-penny per box in the immediate future. The war has taken a large number of men from these awmills, and the outputs have been eriously curtailed.

The farmer-soldiers who have so successfully defended Verdun against the r.ttaeks of the Crown Prince have lately been able to take some respite, since the Germans appear to have realised the futility of assaults against such magnificent fighters. They were drawn from the trenches for a brief period, but practically the whole of the men possessing agricultural experience onered their services to assist in the gathering of crops. A considerable portion of these crops, by the way, was raised from seed corn given by the English farmers through the agency of the Agricultural Relief of Allies Fund, and had been sown as close to the fighting line as military requirements permitted. An arrangement made between the military authorities and the mayors of the communes in the neighborhood of Verdun by which the corn crops belonging to the local peasant farmers sfiould be cut and threshed which otherwise WDuid have been lost. The Agricultural Relief of Allies Fund seeks to give, as opportunity occui-3, strictly agricultural help to ail peasant farmers in Allied countries who have suffered ruin through the enemy invasion.

When the Holstein-Fricsian cow, Tillv Alcartra, gave in a test for 365 davs thigreat total of 30,452.81b of milk, it was thought and said that' the limit had been reached, and that no other cow would ever be able to surpass that record. Recently another Holstein-Fricsian cow. Lutscke Vale Cornucopia, in a 3G5-day test, broke Tilly's queenship-earning record by giving 32,243.41b of milk. These two great cows of the black and white breed have a worthy sister fh the Ohio Holstein-Friesian cow, Jolie Topsy Pauline DeKol, who in a recently-ended year test won the championship of the world as a senior four-year-old by giving 28,4161b of milk. This third giant promises to give Lutscke Vale Cornucopia a run for the queenship next year. Experts consider her performance' as a senior four-year-old almost a\guamntee that she is to be the equal, at least, of the two cows that have surpassed the 30,0001b notch in yield. That she will take the crown from Lutscke Vale Cornucopia is possible and probable. The Friesians are at the head of the procession, and other breeds will have to be up and doing to beat fliem, or even to be in sight of them. What will he the next high mark in milk production? In the matter of meat supply there is evidence of Germany's rather awkward pesition in this respect. Mr J. Balderston, of the McCure. Newspaper Syndicate, recently wrote on his subject as t follows: "There were between 23 000.000 and 24,000,000 cattle in Germany when the war began, of which between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 were calves. Shortly before the appointment of Adolf von Batceki as Food Dictator, a food census was taken by the Government of all live stock, and this showed that on May 1 this year (1910) only in,. 800,000 must be set aside for breeding and to ensure milk and butter supply This left only 5,800,000 cattle in the country which could be killed and eaten and of this number more -than one-fifth were two-year-olds. At the end of the fourth year of war, if the struggle continues so long, Germany will have no more beef-unlcss she kills her milk and breeding stock. Even if peace is concluded in the near future, however, the German food experts are vainly trvin» to figure out how they can replenish then dwindling herds. The task of importing enough beef to feed GO.OOOOOO people for many years after the war is one that staggers the imagination and yet that, is what'must be done" '