CASEIN v. PIG.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1917, Page 2

CASEIN v. PIG.

To the Editor. [ Sir,—That casein -at twopence ha'penny from a thousand pounds of milk at 3.9 will return a supplier £!?. in a month is a statement at, once vague, irrelevant, and delightfully Hibernian., hedging the whole question, and having no more to do with it than the fact that a dozen herrings at three halfpence for one and a half will cost a shilling. However, like a Hun wireless, the statement is not without a psychological effect, uttered amid tho furore of a Moa meeting. Like Home Rule, the return from casein is not yet realised; may never bo so, as Lloyd George will do well to remember. But my returns from pigs are ascertained, are "un fait accompli." I began the season badly, with a loss, a few store pigs and ono sow. After rearing calves and say from November 1 until after the -end of Marcli a few days, and in spite of the heavy drop in milk during the autumn, my total pig cheque for the season amounted to £IJO, precisely £SB Os. (id, with a bonus to come, and I could not get my last six pigs near top weight. After I had ceased supplying, baconers ranged to sevenpence. In Taranaki wo are producing from the pig less than one half of what it can be. made, to yield. Here's an expert's return—not a Government one. My good and stalwart friend L., -why were you nob at Saturday's meeting, when in an evil hour I fell among Moa directors elected arid unnominatcd? L.'s pig cheque for last season was £ 150. The other week I met him in lnglewood, and then and there he slapped his pocket joyously! Well he might. It contained a cheque for £2O for the fag end of his season's pigs. I shall give the economic viciw of this question another day. By the way. the gentleman all the way from Wanganui could discourse to us shareholders for an hour or more from the casein buyer's point of view, while we were limited to a. five-minutes reply and then gagged. Eheu! Well, he, retorting upon my plea foi"the patriotic production of pi;;, declares that casein i.vas largely used for the manufacture of nerve fonics for wounded soldiers at the front. In its cynicism I call this insolent. Last season all the casein got went to produce food. How little of it would be required to produco nerve tonic for the whole British front? It was in your cables the morning of our meeting that the Canadian Covcrnineiil had decreed two baconlesa days a week. When bacon here touches eighteen pence a pound this ■ivinter perhaps the Minister for Agriculture may deem it worth his while in the interests of the publie to look into this casein business. Let mo assure you, Sir. and those unnominated directors of ours, that 1 am still up fresh as ever, and smiling.—-! am. etc.,

' EUIiKKT .1. BAKEWELL, Waitui, August 7, 1017.