nnO .Jouvnal nf Agricidtnre, Victoria. [10 Jtly, 1919. 



grateful to you and the "Iceberg" bi^aud. Tlu' longer I eat tlie 

 margarine the less I like it, and we are allowed only 1 oz. of butter 

 per week, and that just does for Saturday and Sunday's breakfast. 

 I have enjoyed your butter so much this week." 



If there was any period in our life-'.'ime when it was necessary to be 

 patriotic, it is now. Our patriotism should take practical shape. In 

 consequence of the war, this country has heavy abnormal obligations to 

 meet. The chief source to which we must look for help will be our 

 exports. After fully supplying the needs of our own population, we 

 niUHt aim at producing as great a surplus as possible of all commodities 

 that can.be marketed profitably over-seas. I know of nothing which 

 promises such good prospects as dairy produce. As well as exporting 

 all we can, we must see that the highest market value is secured, and 

 that this principle does not apply to dairy products alone, but to all 

 commodities exported. In the recent past, this has not been the case, 

 and if not remedied soon, the most desirable class of population — 

 rural ])roducers- -will be deflected to other countries, where they are 

 permitted to secure full market value for their products, and capital 

 which should be invested in our country areas will find investment 

 elsewhere. 



There has never before been such an opportunity as the present, 

 and never before has the necessity to increase our dairying industry 

 been so imperiou;. If this extension is to take place, there are three 

 essentials that the farmer must look to. They are the improvement of 

 herds, better attention to feeding, and the manufacture of dairy products 

 of the bighest value, while the sale in the best markets is needed in 

 order that those engaged in dairying may receive full reward for their 

 labour, and be induced to remain in the rural districts, and thus help tn 

 stem that tide of population from the country to the city. 



IN-BREEDING . 



More tlian 25,000 guinea-pigs have been reared by the United State? 

 Bureau of Animal Industry on one of its experiment farms to test the 

 effects of in-breeding. Brother and sister have been mated in each 

 generation, and some of the families have reached the seventeenth 

 generation. While a few strains have run out, others are nearly as 

 vigorous as are the control families. But the important fact is that 

 there is no general deterioration ; the various defects that bave appeared 

 are not co-related. One family becomes strong in one respect and weak 

 in another; in a second family conditions are exactly the reverse. Such 

 a state of aftairs does not lend any support to the popular idea that in- 

 breeding necessarily produces degeneracy. The various kinds of 

 deterioration are to bs accounted for in different ways. In general, 

 the belief of scientists is apparently confirmed, that even long-continued 

 iu-breeding does not necessarily mean deterigration. It tends to make 

 the members of a family more aJike, and to perpetuate all variations thai 

 occur. If the strain is a good one, in-breeding Avill improve it; if it is 

 a weak or defective one, in-breeding will bring the defects into promi- 

 nence, and probably lead to the elimination of the strain. 



— Farmers Union Advocate, ISTew Zealand. 



