CARTERTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 17

CARTERTON.

The directors of the Dalefield Dairy Company have in contemplation the erection of a branch factory. Their patrons have increased in numbers to auch »n extent as to make the quantity of n.ilk they brii.g of too great a volume to properly manipulate with their present 1 appliances. They have had as much per day this season as 2500 gallons, and as j more land is being opened up, and some larger areas of good land have been sub- j divided into small firms, llic piwpects of the coming season point in the direction of a still further supply- It n a generally accepted opinion that 1500 gallons is the best payable quantity of milk to work up in one factory. Under that quantity doea not pay so well, and over that quantity is liable to cause neglect in some respects. The Dalefield Company, on tins basis, with the certainty that they have of a further supply of about 500 gallons of milk, are fully justified in erecting a second factory. It is intended, I believe, to locate the second factory nearer to Belvedere, and this will tap a large dairy centre. The question of combining but-ter-making with the present cheese industry will shortly be dealt with, and if that i 3 decided upon, it will mean keeping the factories open all the year round, cheese-making in summer, and buttermaking in the winter. It should prove a step in the right direction for the advancement of the district as a whole. At the present time nothing but cheesemaking is carried on here on factory principles, and should a butter factory he started and fitted up with refrigerating machinery, wo shall see creameries springing up all round—at Kokotau, Waihakeke, Gladstone, and Matarawa. This is the very thing we want, and there is no reason why creameries to supply a central factory should not be started all along the railway lino from Featherston at the one side to the Forty-mile Bush on the other. With such a possibility it would bo well in choosing a site tor the new factory that the directors should locate it near a railway station, the most centrally situated. The present has not been a prosperous season for cheese-makers, and it has shown the disadvantage of carrying all one's eggs in one basket. Butter has commanded a paying price this year owing to the drought in Australia, whilst cheese has been lower than ever it has been for the past five years. The Dalefield D dry Company's directors have gained the confidence of_ their patrons, and in launching out in this new direction will have the confidence of farmers over the whole of YViirarapa. The directors deserve to meet with success commensurate with their enterprise.