DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1936, 22 May 1888, Page 2

DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

The agricultural reporter of the Australasian has recently been visiting the dairy factories in New South Wales, in order to ascertain what progress they had been making during the past two years. His report is satisfactory in so far as he says that the factories which were in existence then are still in existence, and five or six new ones have been started. At the end of April, factory-made butter was selling in Sydney at 15d to 18d ; best private make, at Is to 15d ; ordinary, from 9d downwards. When butter is plentiful in New South Wales, it is shipped to London, and several lots sent of late realised 112s. The last agents' reports of one large shipment was to the effect that it is equal to the best Danish, and they can take any quantity at 120s. Such prices would leave a handsome profit to all concerned, if they could be realised in New Zealand. On one point only does the practice seem to differ widely from that current here. Cold storage accommodation ia the complement of butter factories in Sydney. Two of the companies which exported butter to London have provided a large amount of cold storage room at their stores in Sydney. It was not provided expressly for the export trade in butter, but it was an important element in the success of the shipments. The Fresh-Food and Ice Company carries on an immense icemaking business, and they possess a very large amount of cold storage room, which is employed in connection with the Sydney milk-supply and the frozen-meat trade. The South Coast and West Camden Cooperative Co. have also provided cold storage for butter, milk, and meat. The former company employs the ammonia and the latter the dry-air process. It is easy to see that these means of keeping the butter cool before its shipment were highly favorable to the success of the export business. In addition to this, so strongly have the cold storage companies been impressed with the desirableness of fostering the dairy factory business, that they have pushed the system by all means in their power. For instance, the Fresh Food and Ice Company sent lecturers through the country to induce farmers to go into the milk business, offering a certain price for milk delivered at the railway stations in a good condition. The company built its own refrigerating trucks, and started butter factories to use up the surplus milk, also sending lecturers to agitate for factories in the coast district. Mr. Dimmock, one of the directors of the South Coast and West Camden Co-operative Company, has been lecturing occasionally for five years, for the purpose of getting factories established. He is an auctioneer at Kiama, and he says " the factories make the farmers more prosperous, and that increases my business." One frequently finds the local storekeepers taking the lead in getting up the factories, the local manager frequently acting as secretary. The principle adopted is a truly co-opera-tive one. The dairymen send in the milk. The butter is sent down to the storage rooms in Sydney. The supplier does not receive payment for his milk, but waits to obtain

his share o£ the butter sales. Every month account sales of the butter are received, and that is divided pro rata among the suppliers. A record is kept of each man's milk supplied to the factory. There is so much money received for butter, and there have been so many gallons of milk used. That gives so much per gallon for the milk, and thus each man's share is allotted. A small amount is kept back to pay working expenses and interest, but the rest is divided every month. In some cases there have been difficulties in the way of raising the necessary capital among the farmers, and then a loan has been obtained either from a bank, a business man, or a farmer at a fixed rate of interest. It will be seen that under such circumstances there is very little risk of the shareholders' capital being sacrificed. In most cases the the capital is found by subscribers, who have been also milk suppliers, and it was thus to each shareholder's interest to maintain the capital of the subscribers intact There should be no difficulty in arranging for cold storage for butter in "Wellington in connection with the meat freezing companies, and thus ensuring the keeping of butter intended for export in first class condition.