§ MR. GWYNNI beg to ask the Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) how far the evils resulting from the use as food for animals and for human beings of skim-milk returned from creameries are abating or increasing.
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLThe ill effects of the use of separated milk as a food for young calves are due to feeding the calves on such milk without the addition 701 of a suitable substitute for the fat which had been removed in the process of separating. In the first few years of the Department's existence the complaints on this subject were very numerous. In recent years, however, there have been very few complaints. This may be attributed to the widespread circulation of the Department's leaflets dealing with the subject of calf feeding, and also to the advice given by the county instructors. Such complaints as have latterly been received by the Department have been attributable to the use of inferior calf meals, which contain a low percentage of fat, and are therefore quite unsuitable for being mixed with separated milk as a food for calves. The majority of these inferior calf meals are sold to farmers by travelling agents of the manufacturing firms. The meals are represented by these agents to be excellent substitutes for mixing with separated milk as a food for calves The Department have had a number of samples of these meals analysed, owing to complaints received from farmers in different districts in Ireland to the effect that when calves are fed on such meals they do not thrive. In these cases the Department have recommended the purchasers to offer payment of the amount which the Department estimated as the full value of these meals—this being approximately 25 per cent. of the price actually charged. When the purchasers were proceeded against by the manufacturers for the full price of the meals, the plea of misrepresentation put in by the defendants has been upheld by the court, and the cases have been dismissed with costs against the manufacturers. The question with regard to the effect of the use of separated milk as food for human beings is not one within the province of this Department.
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLThey have no power.
§ MR. HUGH LAW (Donegal, W.)Then are the public compelled to depend solely on the leaflets for information? Are they generally read?
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLThey are widely read, and in the absence of legislative power it is the best thing we can do.