A NOTE OF WARNING.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 17, 1 March 1918, Page 6

A NOTE OF WARNING.

In tlio midst of all tho strife concerning tlio price of dairy products, when the Board of Trade, tlio National Government, and oven tie wage-earn-ing citizen are denouncing tie dairy farmer’s unpatriotic methods of exploitation, and at the same time ensuring that his profits do not reach alarming proportions, there lurks a danger which few of the 9 farmer's detractors realise. Politicians, tho public, and tho Press may, by distorted statements, do their utmost to represent the dairy farmer as an unprincipled profiteer. The hard fact remains that the average farmer continues dairying only as long as he is unable to find more profitable use for his land. This, with the present ample and growing prices for corn, bacon, and fat cattle, is certainly not far to seek. Such being the case, it is scarcely to be wondered at if the farmer is unwilling to follow the most laborious of occupations when it also proves the least remunerative. Much as the consumer realises his dependence on milk products, ho should bear in mind at the same time that tho ties that bind the farmer to the dairy cow arc in general of the slenderest kind, and that but little incentive is required to drive him from dairying to more profitable farming activites. Let those that scan the future take warning from the present manifestation of this universal tendency. The working of a fundamental economic law is certainly depleting the ranks of the dairy farmers; its inevitable result must be a scarcity and an increased price of dairy products.—“N. Z. Farmer.”