THE JERSEY COW—KNOCKED OUT.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1918, Page 7

THE JERSEY COW—KNOCKED OUT.

To the Editor. Sir, —In giving the lie direct to the column of last century figures, dug out to bolster up Jerseys, some sort of defence was expected, and that is why I asked the J.B.S. to put up a man to reply, so that we might "have a run for our money." Therefore astonishment was not wanting when we read in Saturday's "Xows"' an abortive attempt to be funny. >,'ut a single figure; only a lew misquotations from my own letter. It is clear that when writing this letter Mr Ranford was suffering from the hallucination that he was still cornerman or buffoon (we will not say clown) of the Male Choir (mercifully we are spared the grimaces and stale jokes), and if "his items were a risky innovation," as your musical reporter puts it, to let him down lightly, what sort of an innovation was it for the J.B.S. to get him to reply to such up-to-the-last-moment figures as I gave? Let a retired Manawatu manager, recently visiting Taranaki, reply. Writing ho says: "I am out of the game, but I like a fair light. The Jersey people will beat you in bluff and bluster, but when they quote figures you have them wet. When I read those long forgotten figures that my father talked of when I was a boy I saw that the Jerseys were not only cornered, but down and out, and although 1 do not know you from Adam, you are only playing with them." This, Sir, is also tha verdict given by thousands of your clear-beaded readers between Mokau and Manawatu (cutting out Jersey owners!), and to think that the great Jersey offensive, opening with all the bluster at the barrackers command, should end in that little tryiug-ta-bo-funny letter can only be compared to the mountain in labor which brought forth a mouse!

Is it any use giving more figures? I am afraid not. Those Bell Block and Otauto questions that I put are unanswered, because they are unanswerable. So before saying ta ta to the little pocket picker whose owners, not being business men, have overlooked the dictum, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time," but have kept carrying on on the latter assumption, thinking they could always snick that penny out of one per cent.' of butter-fat that weak-kneed factory directors have tolerated too long, * I will have to "put up" the Jersey on another charge, and the serious one of damaging the reputation of the Colony and its cheese makers. Two of the most successful Taranaki ptize-takcrs in cheese will not allow a drop ol Jersey milk into their show .cheese, and, although I may be revealing trade secrets I want to point out to those managers who ••'also ran" how to avoid tms fate in future, and tiiis defection of Jersey milk, in conjunction with the remarks of the Home experts who were asked to report on some South Island show cheese, minus Jersey fat. "that if all the cheese sent Home were like these, New Zealand had nothing to fear in quality or price from Canada," supplies the answer to the question. Why does Canada beat us in cheese? There you are again, with the. Jersey, robbing your managers of their well-deserved laurels, men who are equally good mn k er3 as the Canadians. Nothing I can say could make the Jersey fraud clearer.

I am going to make a sporting offer. New forms of attraction for raising war relief funds are demanded. Now" why not a few of tiie "live wires" in Stratford —and there aro plenty of them—start a travelling Jersey demonstration show? I would suggest a very large tent to hold the rush that will come. Then on one side have Long's Ancient History of the Jersey, in large supply, because it is the J.'BB.'s last hope; on the other side, a pile of cheese made from pedigree cows, Jersey milk to be analysed before and after showing, no wire netting for protection required, as sampling is unlikely; in the centre a dear little Jersey, with six large placards hung around! each one with a couplet as follows: This is the cow ■which gives the milk That sickens the sick. Fetch half-a-quid through 2 months old. This is the cow whose fat in cheese, Ban into the sea in the shape'of grease. This is the cow that the Managers hate For her very rich milk make their _ chee.se secondteitc, This is the cow which on pay day with fourpence a day docs a get-away. This is the cow whose vellow meat when dead,

Can only to' the blinkv pigs be fed. A small tabic is also wanted to hold cream injecting syringes. The .T.B.S know what they are for. Probably one of these injectors as alleged had something to do with the 10.1 test, Nelson way (so unkind people say), hut at Stratford station an unsuccessful competitor M a butter-fat competition with his Jersey, who had been shaking hands with Johnnie Walker, as the best man in the Colony do occasionally, was overheard saying to his wife, "i told you Maggie, ray woman, you did not put, enough cream into Billy Girl's teats, Unit vou wouldn't take any telling.'' That v.-.-. ar k did me. T knew then how big results were produced. Then there must be a showman, so what about ringing up the Male Choir and asking if thev can spare Mr 'Harlequin? If this show is carried out on the lines suggested and held during show week, T will help the thing alone by forwarding a substantial cheque to the Y.M.C.A. and the "Red Cross Stratford.—T am, etc. W. E. WRIGHT.

Rahotu, Aug 17, 1918. P.S.—Standardized milk stands adjourned for a little.