FARMING NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 14 May 1913, Page 3

FARMING NOTES.

TCBEBCCIOBS OOWS

On an average, said Professor Cliamtaloup at Christchurch, 200 tuberculous cows were condemned annually by Stock Department in New Zealand, but a high percentage of tuberculous cattle did not necessarily indicate a high percentage of tuberculous cows. A tuberculin reaction, also, would detect a very slight lesion. If the members of the audience were subjected to the tuberculin test, the majority would give positive reaction, Cor over 75 per cent, of adults at one time oi; other had been infected with the germ. The following figures showed the cows condemned from dairy herds in New Zealand for tlie last two years':—

1911 1912 Auckland 65 72 .Wellington 55 90 Christchurch 41 50 Duncciin 15 50 In Now Zealand the death-rate of childrcn under five years from tuberculoma was CO per million, as against '2ll per million 111 Cireat Brtain. .A great safeguard in tin's respect in Dunedin w'A.S that a company which largely supplied the town with milk pasteurised 89 per cent, of tlie ujijlk it sent out. This heating oft'he' milk to 100x1eg. F. for twenty minutes killed any tubercle bacilli or other harmful germs present, though it did not necessarily kill all the other germs. Ordinary cleanliness and care, said the lecturer, would secure food supplies, more particularly milk, meat and fish in a state of comparative purity. It was worth while paving a little imro for milk which, the dairyman could certify was produced under the cleanly conditions, and from cows certified as'free from disease, and it< was worth patronising the tradesman who screened his shop from flies and dust, and served meat, fish or fruit in a cleanly manner.

WHEN AGE!CULTURE GOES ALL GOES. Some suggestive observations on the importance of agriculture are toniained in an article in that wellknown paper La,Jßevue Economique. The great importance; of the part olayed in the economic life of nations by it'llo culture of ' wheat lias been brought out- prominently by the results of an inquiry conducted under the control of the. Minister of Agriculture, Thus, for instance, it is calculated that in the northern hemisphere alone the of cereals amounts to m>oVo than 314,000,000 tons, while the .manufacture of iron represents 64,000,000 tans. It 'i.s shown that of all industries agriculture is the most important and the chief factor in the economic development of the world. It i;s a .matter of regret that men of business, and especially men interested in finance, are apt to overlook the preponderating influence exerted every year by tlie harvests. Yet from the produce of the harvests dependc, the means which will be at the disposal of all those connected with the soil to purchase manufacture, and, as a consequence industrial activity is dependent 011 agricultural prosperity, and similarly mercantileprosperity is dependent on both. Thus the abundant maize crop in the United States resulted in a big demand for trucks and railway engines, giving rise to activity in several other industries. On the other hand, if the harvest is .poor, the farmers and labourers have little to spend, and their limited outlay is felt through the whole world of business. It is thereforo brrt.h a patriotic duty and true wisdom on the part of statesmen to do everything possible to encourage agriculture and to make it a flourishing industry.