DAIRYING OR SHEEP?

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 109, 9 May 1908, Page 5

DAIRYING OR SHEEP?

■ -&-:.- - ■-■■ THE SLUMP IN WOOL

IND THE BUOYANCY OF BUTTER.

THE DREAMER'S, AWAKENING

[prom our correspondent.]

WELLINGTON, May 9. The tendency of farmers to-day is to drop sheep-farming in favour of dairying. This is quite a new thing in the farming industry; until quite recently"' a dairy farm was looked upon as merely a stepping-stone to a sheep-station, and the man of the milk-pail drudged and toiled early and late, winter and summer, Sundays and holidays, only that he might enjoy the reward some day of sitting on his own hill-top tp. watch the g&\&, •accumulating in rich yellow flakes "on" his own sheep with [»o effort of his own; that he might; luxuriously in his own motorrcar visit and entertain the gayest men and the sweetest women in the country, and generally have nothing to do but dream and smoke and buy up bits of Australia as a hobby. That day has,.ended; the dreamer is rudely awakened, i The golden fleece is assuming a leaden hue, for wool is a drug on the English market; skins are cheap, and mutton and lamb—well, is the future quite rosy for that? Is not Argentine a menace? So he is giving no new orders for motor-cars this season j and he is anxiously concerned for his mortgage, for land threatens to get cheaper, and mortgages may; begin to reveal themselves. His Ibank, Vhich lent him mone^liberally on his unsold clip—will it much longer refrain from reminding him of a debt due? Wool to-day is,worth £5 a bale less than it was onlf a few months ago. ..'.." It doesn't seem to matter what the causos are. Various,, causes have been blamed,for the slump, and each cause in turn has vanished without clearing the sky. k The great fact is that wool is a superfluous commodity on ihe European market, and New Zealand farmers who can quit the business are doing it. Those who sold their stocks either in the ordinary course of business or under pressure of the,- drought are re-stocking 1 Vvit'll dairy cows wherever the district is suitable. Men; wiiW large, newlyacquired sheep-runs are not hastening to stock, and dealers who bought up heavily in the drought times, relying on a number of large areas just opened in North Tt.ranaki and Poverty Bay to unload, are embarrassed by the chilly reception, and have expensive flocks still en hand. On .the dairy side the picture is rich with optimism. Butter in Britain, in spite of, the st.rain of the late famine prices, has not faller yet down to a normal figure^ and local prices are still better —so 'much better that though our cold stores arc full of butter wo have none to spare for Britain. The exceptional season ought to make foreigi* countries enter more into the industry next season.1 But there is a limit the possible increase; you cannot create a dairy cow in twelve months, so on the whole the extensive dive into dairying that has now begun is fairly reasonable, and at the worst the dual plants give an easy retreat to cheesemaking. The Australian trek may also have something to do' with the abandonment of sheep. The'trekkers are essentially the big men.;, the little man vVho remains is a dairy-farmer. Dear butter, dear cheese, dear land, dear bacon, dual plants and , co-operation have all helped to put dairying today on top. * , ,