CHEESE AND BUTTER FACTORIES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 933, 11 April 1868, Page 3

CHEESE AND BUTTER FACTORIES.

• (From the "Australasian.") : The graphic account in another column - [this account was reprinted in a late issue '"-:'■ of the Herald] of the Bodalla Dairy Farm, in New South .Wales, will doubtless iii- . ".-. terest very many of our country readers, and it ought to furnish strong arguments - in favour of the system of fhee.se and but- ' . ter-making in factories, erected with a view to having every part of the process carried out in tl\e most perfect and at the same time economical innnner. For this t account we have to thank a Victorian settler of old standing, who is evidently as- . , tonished at the result of his own calcula? tious, and rather distrustful of the figures, which would make it appear that the profit of 1,500 cows kept on 4,000 acres of . land may be some £26,000 a year, or more than could be realised from hundreds of thousands of acres of bush land fed over by the best of sheep. But even this is not half the number of cows that the sameland will keep after it has been broken up deeply and properly ]aid down with the : ; grasses which are proved to be most suit- . ■ able for it. The spirited owner, Mr. Mort, soon, we hope, to become of freezing renown all over the world, espects ... his laud when fully improved to carry a cow to the acre, and as the profit of each cow is now £13 a year, allowing £5 for expenses, the 4,000 acres of good land, with as many cows, would give a clear return of £52,000, besides what would be obtained from the proportionate thousands of pigs and calves. Even from the land roughly laid down there, is a return by the sale of cheese alone of £6 10s. an acre, with a liberal reduction from the gross proceeds to pay for labour and keep everything in good repair. The land is certainly described as being very rich, and well situated in regard to water, although, not irrigated, but it is no better than much of . the land in our agricultural districts, and from which the farmers would be glad to secure half the amount by tilling it every year. Few of our dairymen can obtain a profit of £6 a cow, not to say an acre, even charging nothing for their own labour, but deducting the cost of the cow's food, and many, trusting to the natural grassesalone, do not get half so much. But to obtain these lai*ge returns there must be a proportionate outlay of capital, ■ which few individuals are able to incur. The character of the Bodalla cheese is well established in the Sydney market, and depends mainly on the care with, which it is made, and on the buildings and other facilities for making and storing it. Doubtless the milk is good too, but no better than that yielded by the average of well-fed cows. For cheese-niaking there is no great difference in this respect, but such butter as is the produce of a Guernsey or Alderuey cow can never be made from the milk of an Ayrshire or shorthorn. In this instance there are good buildings, sufficient utensils, and an unchanging system of manufacture, under which the milk of the cows on the home farm andthatof the tenants, all fed on grass alike, yields a product of equal quality, thereby realising practically the advantages of the factory system : and this, we suppose, is the nearest approach to it in these colonies as jet. Iv stead of a money-rent for the farms, half the produce of the cows is taken, and in a shape which to a certainty yields Mr. Mort more money than it would to the tenants if they had to convert it into a marketable form themselves, for, with inferior skill and appliances, their cheese would doubtless sell for less by sevei-nl pence a pound. We are not tola whether their share of the milk is manufactured for them or not, but if so, the tenants have the full advantage of the system, and must thrive accordingly. Indeed, they have more than the ordinaiy advantages, for they are supplied with, cows too, and have no need of capital of their own. However, on this property there is clear evidence of the great benefit to be derived from dairy work if systematically conducted, and of how progressive it may be. One master mind devises the plan, and with a few fitting agents to carry out his ideas, this may be said to grow upon its own foundations. A certain outlay provides a few good cows and pigs and buildings, and as the money profits come in these allow of further improvements on the land, to keep pace with the increase of stock, until at length the clear income may be counted by tens of thousands, the working expenses supporting iv comfort a greater number of people than could live on the same extent of arable land if treated as land usually is in the colonies. But by individual dairying, witli little or no skill, in nine cases out of ten the returns are seldom or never sufficient to allow of this conversion of profits into capital, and so of their rapidly progressive increase. There are comparatively few persons who can lay the foundations of such a plan ; but every owner of half-a-dozen cows may look forward to his fair share of the £50,000 a year, as soon as he has a cheesefactory within two or three miles of him. If he makes £3 by each of his cows now, c he will make £6 then, thanks to the skill of the best dairyman and maid in his district, applied in better buildings than lie could ever have for himself. Then, when he finds his cows so much more profitable than they used to be, and with less trouble to himself, he will begin to cherish them more, and feed and breed them better, until at last he may expect a yeai'ly return of twice six again, or £12 a cow. While improving his cows he would improve his land too, until from having them half starved for a great part of the year, at the rate of one to twenty acres, he would m alee every two acres keep a cow, and yield other produce besides, thus securing £6 an acre, with other chances in a good season. When land is in good heart, with a due pi'oportion of it under the plough, this proportion of stock can be easily kept; but to get the land into such a condition, or to keep it so,' and procure the stock, far more capital is required than is possessed by ninety-nine out of the 100 farmers. The more need then, for them to unite and economise their means in the way we mention.

And tins account of Mr. Morfc's farm should be studied, by all who desire to know what good land iv Australia is capable of producing, even when under grass alone. No doubt the climate along the rivers near the south part of the coast lino of .New South "Wales is particularly favourable for English grasses, but not more so than that of our own G-ipps Land, and facilities for irrigation during a few of the hot months would more than counterbalance any special advantage in that way. These returns, even from grass, are not, however, to be obtained without a lai'ge outlay ; but when capital is thus condensed on a limited area, how muck higher are they than from the same amount frittered away ovqr ten times theextent of land ? Thus £30 has been expended .on every two acres, capable at present of feeding one cow ; but she returns £13 for cheese alone, clear of all expenses, which, with a couple of pounds more, the value of her calf and the pigs roared on the whey, would pay half the cost in fee simple and improvement of the land each year. The £5 a year deducted for expenses must iuort\than cover inte.- : res!; on the value of the cow, so that hero. we find interest returned on the first out-, lay of capital at tho rate of 50 per cent, 1 per annum. .'■:"- ; :. '