NOTES & COMMENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1938, Page 3

NOTES & COMMENTS

ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. Breeding for Milk. Breeding for milk production has long been recognised as an obscure and difficult problem. In a recent publication, Mr A. D. Buchanan Smith, of the Institute of Animal Genetics, Edinburgh University, produces further evidence to show that his previous contention that milk inheritance is sex-linked; that, in fact, the paternal grandsire has less effect on a cow’s milking capacity than the maternal grandsire. In practice, this theory implies that in selecting a bull for a herd, too much emphasis should not be laid on his sire as the desired milk factor can only be got from the bull’s dam, whose yield is therefore of prime importance. Moreover, inbreeding for milk cannot be effective by concentrating the milk qualities of a sire through his sons. Farmers’ Trading. West Cumberland Farmers’ Trading Society Ltd., has, it was stated at the annual meeting at Whitehaven, grown out of a small concern serving agriculturists within a five miles’ radius of Whitehaven into a huge business with branches in six counties, and a turnover, during 1937, of £615,981. Mr T. Smillie (chairman) paid a striking tribute to the manager (Mr John C. Wade) and the staff for their “goahead” methods. Gross profits during 1937 showed a substantial increase, and £16,911 would be allocated as follows: 5 per cent interest on share capital; lOd in the £ on all members’ purchases provided they were paid for before the end of the calendar month following date of invoice; 4d in the £ for purchases which did not rank for the lOd bonus. It was stated that the time was not far distant when the turnover would reach the £1,000,090 mark, and Mr Wade promised the meeting that every effort would be made during the ensuing year to bring the figure up to £750,000 at least. Lived on Milk. Shortly before his death, at the age of 84, Thomas A. Edison, world-famous scientist and inventor, revealed the secret of the diet which had kept his brain working and his physical powers unimpaired up to that advanced age. This is what he said: “I have been experimenting with milk now for about eight years. For the last three years I have hardly taken anything else. I came in with milk and I guess I'll go out with it. It is the only balanced ration —balanced by the Great Chemist who is far away. Eighty per cent of our deaths are due to over-eating. After the age of 21 a large variety and quantity of food are unnecessary. All those things crowd the stomach and cause poisons. It takes courage to learn restraint, but all that eating is unnecessary. I find that my weight keeps up on a glass of milk alone every two hours. You can eat less, yet you find your weight keeps up, and you feel better.” Weak Mouth in Stock. A weak mouth and underjaw is considered by sheep-breeders to be a most undesirable feature in sheep. Observations at recent bull sales suggest that pedigree cattle breeders are much more tolerant of such defects (states an English writer). They will be

wrong. Such characteristics are highly undesirable in any commercial stock, and should not be tolerated by those at the fountain head. Breed societies, and the official inspectors for licences and premiums, might well give attention to such deformities. Stocking Dangerous.

Many farmers still continue the injurious practice of stocking up their milking cows before sending them to market. Any man of intelligence who knows his business would be able to select a dairy cow without this kind of camouflage, and there is really no justification for it. Apart from that, it is bad for the cow as well as for the person who buys her. One stocking may not do much harm, but all stocked cows are not sold and drafted straight into a herd. Many are not sold and are sent to another market, while others are bought to be sold again, and at every selling there is another stocking, which the final purchaser has to pay for by a reduction in yield and loss of quarters.