The Rise of Dairying.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18411, 29 May 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Rise of Dairying.

Waikato's Great Industry.

gggaSfr. HE' Dairy Industry is the foundation of the economic life of the City of Auckland, and of the AuckJll- IK. aIU * Province. Other industries have had their heyday. The discovery of gold, and the great ■yj' P- success of many gold-mining ventures, brought population to the province and built up its earlier wealth. The digging of kauri gum brought considerable wealth to the province, as also did the export of timber. The sheepowners and graziers once represented by far the most important branches of agriculture. Now dairy farming is eclipsing every other wealth-producing agency.

Nature has provided in the Auckland Provncc ideal conditions for the development, of dairying. An abundant rainfall, a genial climate, and wide stretches of fertile land, combine to make this'province one of the most productive dairying districts in the world. Here grass grows the whole year round; indeed, pasturage is generally more scanty in January or February, the mid-summer months, than in winter. The stalling of cattle is unknown. Cows are not usually rugged in winter. The growing of green feed to vary the ration and to stimulate milk supply, is not a seasonal matter. Autumn-sown crops provide luxuriant fodder in the early spring. Bleak clays there are, but never conditions approaching those which have to bo surmounted in the dairying countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, dairying in this favoured province is easy by comparison, and the climate is an asset which .pays an additional dividend that more than compensates for the charges which distance from the markets of .the world levies in the shape of freights. <

The Waikato has been described as " the dairy farm of the Empire," and there is justification for what might seem a boastful claim. There, over thousands of square miles of easy rolling country, which responds in an amazing manner to sound methods of treatment and management, dairying has expanded during tho past'two decades, to colossal dimensions, and in view of the great areas that still remain idle, the opportunity for sub-division of large farms, and the possibilities of increasing production by the greater application of scientific principles, no one can do more than guess at what the future has in store.... .. •

It is a common failing of many people to believe that the achievements of their particular generation represent the final word in many branches of human endeavour. No doubt, the stono , age had -its share of folk who believed that there were no worlds left to conquer. But let the man who imagines that in primary production the maximum is in sight recall the various stages of . this young country's development. He will find that the standards of production. have steadily increased from one generation to another. The standard of the pioneer became. trivial when cool storage and refrigeration camo to tho aid of humanity in its primary task of securing sufficient food. In regard to dairying, this new standard became out of date with, the invention of the cream separator, the milking machine, and the many mechanical contrivances which arc now in daily use in the manufacturing of milk products. "'Can' it be assumed for one moment that no further progress will be made? The idea is absurd. Experiments being carried out in laboratories to-day will result in improved and new processes, and possibly new products, all returning greater wealth to the people. On the farm itself, obvious means of increasing production exist. In many quarters, the natural advantages of soil and climate merely offset the waste and loss of inefficiency. The time advances rapidly when much of this waste, will be eliminated. One of the outstanding sources of loss has been the feeding of cows of low butter-fat standard. Waikato opinion refuses to accept for itself the low Dominion average given officially, but the eagerness with which herd-testing is being adopted proves that farmers realise

— that their returns should bo greater., Further, much moro attention is being paid each year to cultivation and the growing of.green feed. As important as tne need for increasing production is the question of improving the quality of' the manufactured products, for the time appears -to be rapidly approaching when a vastly increased world I output of daily products will niako quality an almost determining factor in the disposal of large quantities at the highest priccn, and in the opening up of new markets. In this matter the dairy companies are achieving what would have been deemed impossible a few years ago. i The credit is due v to the farmers (themselves, because they arc the I owners of the leading institutions, I and in the Waikato they have agreed 'to penalise themselves if the raw material is not up to a given stan- ' dard. Among the many modern aids to greater efficiency on the farm, hydro-electric energy must be given a foremost place. Throughout, the • Waikato the various power boards set. up to distribute Horahora ( power, have worked in a manner worthy of Waikato enterprise. In two or three years they have erected a network of transmission lines over the countryside, a"d every week sees more and more farms equipped, with this boon. The consequence ih a saving of labour and the passing of a Having of labour the passing of much of the drudgery formerly inseparable from dairying. J Emphasis is laid, and rightly so, j upon the purely commercial aspect lof the industry. At a time when financial depression has swept like ' a devastating wind across the Do- | minion, the industry has meant '' financial salvation, and has stayed j many evils which arc a menace to national well-being. But the dust 'of the market -place should not b<: i allotted in blind us to another great , national service the dairying indu< iin is performing. By peopling the- ; vac;!."' id""' , pulling men to work 'on th' Kiil, and ensuring a degree lof rom/fii and prosperity never bei fore iearhrd by the bulk of the ; people on the land, it. Ip helping to ' preserve the fibre of a race the j Rdiirr of whose greatness has been found apart li m its devotion to th" -■■:. in its inherent love for tho soil ami the propagation of it* : fruits. Cities are essential to tow I life of the nation, but woe bctidet ■ lit, if the rural population doe* not. keep pace with that of the cities We in New Zealand arc an ! agrarian people who for some years ! ha', been showing a strong inclina- | tion to abandon our natural task j for the frenzied, soul destroying lifo !of commercialism. Modern dairyj ing, which docs not entail excessive* drudgery and discomfort that dull! the mind, may do much to stop th® drift to the cities, and counteract I some of the dangerous influences of| j the times.