FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1917, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OP INTEREST. Tlie prohibition of the slaughter of hrfifcrs, if icarricd into effect, would place cliecse manufacturers in an awkward position. Rennet is very scarce, and the dairy companies want all the calves' veils that Ihcy can procure, in order to help to lessen the rennet shortage. The ''Otaao Witness," dealing with (lie sheep returns, says:—"Canterbury's poor showing of an increase of only 204,171 in a dozen years is largely accounted for by the drought of the past two years; but, even so, in view of the large numbers of sheep taken into Canterbury of recent years from both north and south, there is an uneasy suspicion that that province has been over-killing and over-exporting, tempted by the high prices." The high prices offering in Engjand for stock are commented on in a- letter dated June 21, written by a young New Zealand soldier, D, Cottle, to his grandfather, Mr Cottle, of Cottleville Terrace. The writer, who was at Codford at the time, says:—"They had a sale here a few days ago, and fat lambs brought !18s. I have seen just as good sold in New Zealand at 18s Od. Cows we would consider worth £lO brought £4O or £.10." Cut even our prices have gone far beyond the ISs Gd lamb st::ge since then.

The flovermnent's scheme of placing returned soldiers on the heavy bush country at the head of the Jfoka'u River says more for their ingenuity than foi(heir commonsense. Pioneering the Taranaki hinterland has broken down men and women in the prime of life, not in isolated instances, but in scores of cases; and the Government proposes that "winged" soldiers and nerve* shattered ones, too, shall go into the .isolation of these fastnesses! The country ought to condemn the proposal roundly. The man who risks his life for a country should not be called upon to live on the roughest and most inaccessible part of it. He is entitled to something better. Apart from this aspect, a man would need to be a semimillionaire to fell, grass and fence the enormous tracts of country now being offered, for labor, grass-seed and fencing materials are at terrific prices just now. —Lvttelton Times.

It is to be hoped that the Imperial fiovernment will give New Zealand and: Australia a voice, as promised, in the disposal of the German concessions in respect of Ocean Island and other islands in the Pacific, which were valuable for their immense phosphatic (lev posits. It would be a good idea for the New Zealand Government to make strong efforts to obtain the deposits and work them as a national industry. Teed is reported to be very plentiful in Otago and Southland, and much ot the land is understocked. On top of this comes an inclination to send quantities of stock northwards to supply the demand from Canterbury. It is interesting to breeders that the Polled Angus heifers recently brought -from the South Island by Mr. R. J. Linn have come through the winter well, says the North Island correspondent of the "Otago Witness." They have carried good thick coats throughout the colder weather, and this* should assist them in the vigorous winter climate of the Taranaki end of the west coast. Their color appears to be a trifle darker than when they first landed in Taranaki. Their development will no doubt be watched witii great interest by Taranaki dairy farmers, and if they uphold the reputation for milk production that some cf their breed have established elsewhere, they should prove a very valuable type of dairy cow •for the Taranaki province. It is a certainty that they will get a fair test under Mr. Linn's management, •that gentleman having previously built up one of the best Jersey herd in South Taranaki. ,

The milk produced in America in one year amounted to over six billion gallons which, as one writer estimated, would make a lake large enough to iloat the navies of the world.

CATTLE SHORTAGE. SERIOUS POSITION IMMINENT. According to a well-known expert buyer of meat, we are going to see a serious shortage of beef in the next few weeks, and for a long period thereafter. Prices, he says will rise. That is an interesting prediction, of course, but the price problem is as nothing compared to the probable outcome of the indiscriminate slaughter of dairy cows and heifers now goin" on. The beef pens are filled with a mixed lot of cattle, some bred for beef and some only sold for beef. They -were bred for dairying purposes, judging by tvpe but the promise of a prompt cash "return tempted the owner to send them to the butcher. Dairymen, or some 01 them, at any rate, buy their milking ,cows with a view of fattening them for the butcher at the end of the milking season, instead of breeding from those that prove of value as milkers. It would be a gladsome sight to find a retail dairyman building up a herd of great bucket performers, by mating up iiis best producing cows to a bufl of known milking and butter-fat otrain. But such a thing is not frequent hereabouts. This, however, is a digression.

The high prices of beef haye led to an unduly heavy slaughter of female cattle. Statistics show that, apart from those killed at ordinary slaughterhouses, New Zealand slaughtered nearly 104,000 cows for export last year, an increase of some 0000 on the previous twelve months' figures, while for 1015 the total was 55.000 and in 1014 .only 30,000. This means a destruction of our breeding stock, and nothing less. If all these cows were bred for beef, and were thus useless in the dairy, the position would not be so bad, but there is a aood deal of dairying blood in our weekly offerings of heifer and cow beef. The position in the near future may becntifi" a very serious one, particularly if Kew Zealand experiences the expected rush of returned soldiers towards rural life.—Lvttelton Times.