DAIRYING IN SOUTHLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 14322, 15 January 1910, Page 5

DAIRYING IN SOUTHLAND.

DRUMMOND’S DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSED. The show season in Otago and Southland has been responsible for attracting by means of the exhibition of cattle additional attention to the rapid growth of the dairying industry in the southern portion of the Dominion. Before next season many new dairy factories are likely to blossom forth into existence, and probably no district lends itself so much for development as the neighbourhood around Drummond. Indeed in an interview which appeared in these columns in September last, that well-known dairying authority, Mr John Sawers (the manager of the Edendala Dairy Factory), in alluding to the prospects of the extension of the dairying industry in Southland, made the statement that very large tracks of country existed around Drummond where the best possible field existed for expansion, and where, as in other places, the construction of a railway line was alone wanted to secure the development of the district as a dairying producing area.

Mr James Lumsden, of the Drummond Dairy Factory, is also firmly convinced that Drummond is destined to. become a big centre of the industry, although he thinks that for various reasons progress there is not so marked at present as it should be. The factory, he says, was opened on October 21st, 1908, and for the ten days of that month the amount paid for milk was £59 12s 9d. For the -whole of October last year payments for milk totalled £270, or 50 per cent more in proportion than the corresponding period of the previous year, despite the fact that the number (30) of suppliers at the start had only increased by three in the • 13 months. On the other hand, however, the original suppliers had found the business profitable, and had added to their herds of cow's. But nevertheless, he said, many of the farmers were not moving with the times. Even some farmers very adjacent to the factory, and with land more fitted for dairying than for anything else, had not adopted dairying as an occupation, whilst the herds of others were not commensurate with their holdings. For instance, one of the latter class of fanners had SCO acres and only milked six cows for the factory, another had 500 acres and only 12 cows, and another 400 acres and S .cows. Many similar examples could be cjuoted, and this neglect to launch out or to co-operate with the factory naturally retarded the growth of the industry. In Mr Lutnsden’s opinion the .district around Drummond is one of the finest for dairying purposes to be found jji tire South Island, and he estimates that if the land were divided into holdings of 200 acres each such holdings could easily carry SO cows. Taking an area of about four miles square around the factory, thinks the distinct should easily carry 4000 cow's, which would give a production of about 1000 tons of cheese annually. Further afield the same possibilities exist, and Mr, Lumsden includes in his vision of development the country from the Waimatuku in the south to the hills in the north, and embracing the Waimatuku 'Flat Limestone Plains, Oreti, Timboon, Bavswater, Gladfield, Heddon Bush, South Hillend, etc. Mr Lumsden, however, deplores the absence of direct railvvav communication with Drummond,' which, if provided, would, he considers, bring great prosperity and at the same time be a good paying concern in railway revenue. The route of railway he favours is the scheme suggested' some 30 years since for a line starling at Wrights Bush and running through to Heddon Bush, which he maintains could be constructed at a cost not exceeding £2OOO per mile. He hopes that even now the Government will recognise the requirements of the district in that way. One of the most successful dairy farmers in Southland, who possesses exceptional knowledge both of (he neighbourhood around Drummond as well as, of Edendale, wdtere he now resides, has also communicated to a representative of the Southland Times his views on the points raised by Mr Lumsden. He has no hesitation in saying that if properly farmed the Drummond land w'ould be quite equal to the famed qualities of the Edendale estate. The farms as they now' existed at Drummond wore, he recognised, too large in extent fpr dairying. Smaller areas were necessarv for successful dairying, and the division of estates naturally meant more population a fact which would bo beneficial to Drummond. He anticipated, however, that the Drummond farms would be gradually cut up so that the objection to their present size would then disappear. Small farms were the thing to aim at for the benefit of the Dominion, and dairying was the natural result of small holdings. His idea was that all the district west of Invercargill was, if dairying was properly cultivated, destined to be as highly remunerative as the Taranaki or Edendale lands. The exponent of these views pointed out that the development of the Drummond district meant big things for Invercargill as the natural business centre. His only fear of the future of dairying was the over increasing calls made by the Government in the shape of taxation, which, if persisted in, was likely to cripple farming. For instance, he said, he was interested as trustee in a farm of 204 acres at Seaward Downs, of which the rent was £65 per annum. In 1906 the Land Tax was £1 10s 3d ; last year it had risen to £2 3s lOd, and this year it was as much as £7 10s lOd. He feared it was only the thin end of the wedge for Hit Government " bleeding ’ the farmers