GROWTH OF DAIRYING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14586, 24 January 1911, Page 7

GROWTH OF DAIRYING.

VALUE OF THE INDUSTRY.

HOW IT COMPARES WITH WOOL.

The dairying industry in New Zealand is assuming large proportions, particularly in regard to the export of butter, and in a few years it is more than likely that dairy produce will be well in the running for the first place among the exports from the Dominion. Butter especially has shown a large and steady increase in the output during the past few years. This has been particularly noticeable in the Auckland province, but the exports from the rest of the Dominion have also been steadily, mounting up. For the year ended December 31 last, the total butter exports for New Zealand reached the total of £1,823,147 as against £1,639,380 for 1909, this showing an increase of £183,767 for the year. Cheese also showed an increase last year, the figures being:— 1910, £1,200,219; 1909, £1,105,390; the increase for 1910 being £94,829.

During the past few years the export of wool -has not increased with the same rapidity as butter and cheese. At the present time wool-growing is one of the most valuable of New Zealand industries, but at the present rate of progress it is anticipated that dairy produce will soon prove a. formidable rival to the wool-pro-ducing industry This, it is aserted by those, qualified to form an opinion, will prove a decided advantage to the Dominion, a large and well established dairy industry having for a country many and obvious advantages over a wool industry. Those who maintain this have no intention of, in any way, disparaging the production of wool, for the importance of the industry is undoubted, the exports for last year representing a value of £7,941,655. But discriminating between the two industries, the dairy ' industry when it reaches the same proportions as the wool industry will prove a greater benefit to the country. There are always fluctuations in the prices of wool, a factor which is not experienced to any large extent— the ■ butter trade. It is also a well-known fact, especially in the northern districts of the Dominion, that dairy farming yields considerably more to the acre than does sheep-farming. This means as a rule closer settlement, which is a very important consideration in a young community. In the North Island particularly, the growth of dairying lias largely prevented the development of the sheep industry, especially in the northerly districts. A farmer, in speaking of the two industries, said that at one time, sheepbreeding promised to be the greatest industry in the whole of New Zealand. Now it seemed not at all unlikely that in the course of time the cow would surpass the sheep in New Zealand in the value of its products. Certainly, he said, the value of dairy produce had increased during the past ten years at. a greater rate than the products from the sheep. Under good methods of farming, a man with a comparatively small acreage could obtain from a small "herd of cows a very comfortable living, but the smallest sheep farm suitable for yielding a man a decent living had to be large enough to carry from 1000 to 2000 sheep. If the present rate of increase in the dairying continued in the Auckland province, it was only a matter of a few years when butter and cheese exports would reach a higher total than the meat and wool from almost any other province in the Dominion. At the same time, sheep-raising in the northern parts of the Auckland province was making headway. It was not to be supposed that- dairying would supplant the wool industry. But it was quite certain that dairying had been much more profitable than the sheep-breeding industry, and, that this accounted for the progress in dairying. , An authority on the dairying industry, speaking recently with regard to the prospects of its future growth, said the markets of the world were far from being fully supplied. Great Britain took annually £29,000,000 worth, and New Zealand at the present, time only supplied to the value of about £2,744,770, The fact that the United States is becoming a customer for our dairying produce opened up good prospects. The last steamer leaving Auckland for San Francisco took about 1750cwt of butter, the greater part of which was for transhipment to Vancouver; this was merely an indication of what, might be expected in the future. Australia was finding a steadily growing market in the East for dairy produce, and there were other countries from which a demand might be created, such as British Columbia and the western ports of Canada and Alaska. These places were likely to prove considerable customers in the future when steamers with refrigerators were running regularly between New Zealand and Vancouver.