DAIRY PRODUCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2414, 14 June 1900, Page 7

DAIRY PRODUCE.

(Tapanui Courier.) The dairying industry is rapidly assuminggreat dimensions in New Zealand, and in the North Island especially it is adding great wealth to iarmers and dairyists. In the South Island cheese and butter making for export is not carried on to the same extent, owing mainly to the fact lha< the country is better adapted to sheep. The luxurious pastures of the North Island are particularly suitable for cattle, and the -warm climate ensvires a good flow of milk with very little a-.t-f ci.-il feed. The North Island semi-tropical growth of grass is inimical to sheep, as it i;n lives foot rot, and the bush growth also stains the "wool; hence the rapid gro»vth i.f c'jiiymg since cool chambers on ocean steamers have been provided for carrying this perishable produce to Uie Northern Homisph-nv. 3i>m« of the Nor lh Island butter is now deeme- 1 to be about the best on the London market — equal if not superior, to the famous Danish that at one time held premier position. New Zealand butter should excel, for the reason that the cows are nearly all grass-fed, whilst in Northern Europe and Canada they are ice-bound for half the year, and stall feeding has fien to be resorted to. The Canadians and Danes, however, are wide-awake people, and they keep up a full supply all the year round by artificial feeding during the cold weather. When there is no nutritive grass available, ensilage, hay, straw, and roots are the chief foods for winter ; and the cows are housed in warm sheds and milked in comfort. Litter exercise yards for the animals are provided for a fe.v liours per "day, and water is given tligli'jy warmed in "excessively cold periods, wben the Ice King reigns supreme. No doubt New Zealandei'3 will attend to winter supplies of butter now that the export business i* plarcl on a firm ba^is ; and with capital flowing imo the industry farmers will be enabled to <-reel suitable buildings for wintering ' their rows and providing plenty*of feed ft 1111 ' 1 the pr-riod of short days and long nights. The total vVue of butler- exported from the North Island this year is likely to reach half a million in money, a considerable excess of any previous year. In some portions of the South Island dairying for export is carried on at various centres, but on nothing like the scale reached in the north. Cheese is made in preference to butter at most of the southern factories, and fortunately the price obtained for the' past two seasons has been highly remunerative. The cooler climate of the south is so well adapted for the growth of sheep, and the labour attending- them so much less than is required for cows, that the southern farmer is chary of going in for dairying, especially when "" sheen pay as well as they have done during the past few years. In Tapanui district very little attention is • paid to modern C dairying, and the pioneer factory established here went " bung " for want of a supply of raw material. The manufactured article was firstclass, this milk being of the highest quality ; but landowners would not produce the quantity, and hence the failure of the factory business. Mr John Mackie took up the running when the factory closed down, and his annual product of about 7 tons of Cheddar finds a ready market" locally. One great srambling block to dairyists in a rich district like Tapanui is the seven days' labour invoked. The people here believe in the Commandmen • that says : — Six days slialt thou labour, and until cows can be found that require no Sabbath milking and the labour involved .thereby, we opine that the southerners will largely rely on wool, mutton, and lamb as a means of making a living out of the soil. Independent of Taieri, Milton, Clutha, Mataura, Wyndharn,and other cheese-producing centres, factories have been established in several coastal and bush settlements, and there the dairyists should thrive. It is to be regretted that a richly grassed district like Tapanui should stand aloof from dairying for export ; aad a centre like ELelso should find room for a factory that could help to supply the London market with both butter and cheese. There is money in the, business if people have only pluck enough to face the labour that is requisite during the making season. Rich river flat land like that at Tapanui and Kelso is particular ly adapted for dairying, as the r rass is more luscious than that grown on the riches ; and in addition to Kelso, Crookston also offers a fine field for dairying on a large scale.