THE DAIRY SCHOOL QUESTION

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 278, 2 December 1907, Page 5

THE DAIRY SCHOOL QUESTION

LESSONS FROM ABROAD.

WHERE NEW ZEALAND IS

BEHIND THE TIMES,

"Yes, we are marvellously behind I the times in some tilings," said Mr P. C. Freeth to a representative of this journal, intent on getting an extra local view of the dairy school question, "and it is only when one travels that lie comes to realise it. For instance, about this matter of a dairy school and experimental station. The vacillation of those in authority has been almost childish. While we are talking about the establishment of one such institution, and squabbling about the question of « site our competitors in other parts of the world are perfecting their arrangements, ( and by self-help and Government control rasing two pounds of butter in every place where one pound of bucter grew before. ''

"What have they in Denmark? They have got dozens of experimental and some good agricultural colleges too. Dairying is carried on on sciencifice principles, private enterprise and Government control going hand in hand. Of oourse, I know that that is not a new discovery. The experts of the New Zealand Agricultural Department are quite conversant with what is going on outside. Their reports, are full-of information and suggestions, .but the trouble is that no notice is taken of their representations. Instead we have little paroohial squabbles about' sites.

"But if we are going to increase our output of butter and cheese, Mid to be anything worth while in the way of exporters we shall have to Cease squabbling, liven up and get to work.

"Want an experimental station? Why we could do with at least four, perhaps six, of that is if our farmers and farmers' sons are going to get out of their rut and achieve anything worth while..

"We have grading, of course, and a more or less efficient control at the factories, but the Danish people go. the whole hog. They start right at the beginning Do you know that they have close upon four hundred dairy control societies there, composed of farmers> handling oyer 400,000 cows? The Danes are riot always leaning against a post and asking Government to come along and do things. They engage qualified men to go over the farms of their members, test the quality and quantity of milk and calculate the cost as produced by °ach cow. , ... r . "The experiments 'just'got tinder way in . 1893, Do you know ,what they ;fotind? ; They discovered $h£t some herds yielded" one third more milk than others, and that while some cows were gluttons to eat they were poor yielders and others just the reverse. When they brought it down to figures they found that while some cows produced milk at a cost of 5d a pound, others went up to as much as two shillings. These were sisters to the famous 'robber cows' that 'we have heard so much about at dairy association meetings.

"When the Government found what these control societies were tip against and that they really meant business they subsidised them £25 per annum for every 300 cows in their control and the movement went forward like a prairie fire. Co-oper-ative testing associations sprang up everywhere, the farmers 1 began the weeding out process and to attach themselves to winning strains. The astounding result was that in sixteen years Denmark's export doubled, that is to say, inoreased from £3,000,000 to £6;000,000, and it has been going on ever since. >

"Of course they didn't get this result for nothing: Brains were used and had . to. be paid for» But the cost was not commensurate to the benefit. The cost of keeping the yearly records was shown to be Is 8d to 2s 6d per cow, while the increased returns as the result of five years' testing varied from £1 5s to £8 per cow.

> "But the Danes were not satisfied with- that. They realised that if they wanted to get results they must begin at the right end. So the various associations, with the co-operation of the Government, appointed inspectors with veterinary and hygienic experience to go round the pails and byres to give advice and make reports, &nd to bring into effect a system of dairy inspection such as is badly wanted in New Zealand. On top of this they did as we do. They sent practical instructors round the factories to gi re instruction to the butter makers and the Government paid the cost. "It was • soon discovered that instead of sending abroad for starters these could be provided at a reasonable cost at the. experimental stations, and not only that, but factories using home-made starters took the prizes at the Royal Show in England against all-comers for three years in succession.

"Then on top of everything else the Government established in the centre of good dairying districts a number of dairy schools where factory plants were installed and practical instruction as well as scientific instruction imparted to the sons of farmers intent upon increasing their knowledge, or' graduating for positions as factory managers. With factory . managers trained in that way and empowered to reject milk belbW par, and with a weeding out system going on amongst the cows, it i 4 no wonder that Denmark has been able to go to the top of the market and to stay there. "But it is not only in Denmark that the forward movement is being made. Canada, another of our competitors, has establised dairy schools and experimental stations with a view of increasing and improving her product, and before many years her output will justify being stamped A 1 at Lloyd's. The Hollanders, French, Swiss and Belgians are also making forward developments with an eye on the British markets.

"The peculiar th:ng is that while everybody connected with the local trade recognises its • deficiencies and is prepared with admonition and advice nothing is being done. The habit of leaning upon the Government in uneradicable.

"At the same time I do not forget that in this matter we in Palmerston led whilst others have merely followed. Palmerston was the first to raise the signal of self-help and to make a generous proposition for the donation of a site for a dairy school and experimental station in New Zealand. If the Government is well-advised it will not only accept Palmerston's offer, but it will instal schools and stations in Waikato, Taranaki and every other locality in New Zealand where dairy farming is being actively engaged in, and

where it is possible to make two poundß'of butter grow where one grew heretofore. "This," said Mr Freeth in conclusion, '"is a matter of national importance, which .should be. lifted out of the' arena of petty politics. New Zealand is,'* afte* all, only a tiny place, and if she is going to obtain a permanent niche in the world's markets it must be by making the best use of her wonderful soil and climate, and by scientific methods and intensive culture producing nothing but first-class articles, in fact, the best."