THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1400, 28 March 1912, Page 8

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

SOME FUTURE PROBLEMS. A correspondent, "J.D.Y.," writing in the "Stratford Post." makes some very sonsiblo and interesting comments on the dairy industry, from which we take the following:— ■During tho lost ten years a remarkable l'iso iiii the value of land, suitable for dairy-farming, has taken place; a riso considerably more in proportion than even the increased remnneration obtained l'rom . tho industry will warrant it' it is to be carried 011 upon the lines of the past, a feature of increased wages and increased cost "of living is a factor that is often lost sight of. With the growing years, and natural increase in population that will take place, there will grow with it a change if the Dominion is to prosper as it should. Tho remedy will be that the farms will bo subdivided into smaller areas and bo more intensely farmed, and X venture to sav made much moi-o productive, and this miist bo so if the land values are to warrant. the growing increase in price. There will always be a large area in New Zealand that cannot profitably lie employed in dairy-farming, but there is also a considerable area that, with intense farming, can bo made to provide a good living and comparative comfort if cut up in, say, 50-acre blocks, and this would ensure the,future prosperity of the "Dominion, and much increased output oi product. Drain on Dairying Lands. "To an observer who has watched the effect of/dairying .on the lands in our districts, it. is plainly evident that tho drain mado upon thc.;e lands during the last ten years Ims been very heavy indeed, and that" it will be imperative to restore the fertility by the use of_ artificial manures and soiling crops. This will especially apply fo,higher'lauds which are devoted to cheese-making, which is known io be an industry requiring heavy toll from the soil—more "so .tlian that of butter-making, which also is heavy. The farmers of the future will havo to use basic slag, and other suitablo manures, in considerable quantities, and will then find that a smaller area,- intensely farmed, will give them tetter results for their labour and capital than the larger areas badly farmed. Those who have experimented in this direction have been amply repaid, but it is surprising how few have as yet realised the importance of this reasoning. One of the greatest evils of this country has been the. desire' of tho farmers'to acquire areas far iii excess of their adequate financial means-to work thein successfully. • This has no 'douht' largely in the past been influenced by tho l'nct that each year has shown people ready to pay higher prices for land that hn?. in.no senso increased in real value. Would this be so if more of the principal had to be found by the purchaser? I venture to say it would not. This, however, does not say the laild is not worth the money paid per acre if re■quii'od'in a smaller area and more intensely farmed. Many farmers with families could well consiiler the cutting up of areas held by them, as their sons readied manhood, rather than that those sons should-cry out that they were landless. A Crying Need. To my idea, therefore, the freehold tenure, in limited area, is-the crying need of tho dairy farmer, and the land usually leased to dairy farmers is merely being 'drained to death by those' wto>"are'rackrenting it, and in a slightly lesser degree the same-methods are employed by those holding larger areas heavily encumbered with mortgage. Wc find a few exceptions, and we trust to livo to see the exception become the rule.

I venture the opinion that the larger portion of.the areas now, devoted,to dairy tanning could in a few years be made to produce double what they are now doing by reasonable subdivision and that if our dairy farmers had smaller areas' 'and smaller "monkeys" to carry, both they and the Dominion generally would enter into a wave of genuine prosperity such as never vet experienced. That the general heavy rise of the price of land during the past few years, and still continuing of the old methods of working if, is a sign of genuine prosperity leaves grave reasons for doubt. It has been more a case of that exceptional prices for produce having prevented a serious slunio, which if it comes will give the Dominion a shock that will take years to recover. The general rule has been that where men have been successful on a reasonable area, they have in many cases purchased adjoining' areas, whereas by spending a much lesser sum in the judicious working and manuring of the-land they already held, they could have obtained an equal income at a far greater economic advantage, anil by. so doing have left accumulated areas to l>e similarly developed by those seeking land, and which is not likely to eventuate when land is aggregated. This will be a live problem in the years to come, and is not. the faddist idea of a visionary. That small areas intensely farmed is no idle thought is amply shown in the examnle of Denmark, whose production of dairy produce is an object lesson to-day. The robbing of the natural productiveness of our soils has been already carried on to an alarming extent, and nature cries for some return of the drain made on it. When will the majority of our farmers wake up to this? Probably not till the lesson is brought forcibly home to them, and then it will take man* years to repair the neglect that if checked now would les- | sen the evil.