THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1183, 27 May 1884, Page 3

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

In all human enterprises great mistakes are often made, but in the course of time things move on, and somehow shuffla into their right places and do their proper work. Long years of experience generally matures undefined plans and correct our silly notions of men and things. The wisdom of the present will be best seen in consulting the past, and in adopting plans which ages of experience have matured. The nearest way to success in the manufacture of dairy produce would be to take 1000 acres, more or less, cultivated or unbroken lands ; build a factory where butter could be made, and every description of cheese suitable for the London market would be be mxnnfactured. Cheddar, Cheshire, Glostet, Wiltshire, and Stilton cheese, Wiltshire bacon 'and condensed milk. To this factory the other factories would apply, and no men or women would be sent out to superintend any department of dairy produce without their proper credentials. All things connected with it ' are simple and easily accomplished. I Once started, it would pay its own expenses, and increase the value of the land for 5( Y miles round 100 per cent. Wheat growing will never pay the New Zealand farnur; breeding young stock and fattening bullocks is simply ruin. 'The cow is the mother of blessings,' and is the only hope of the farmer. There are in America 11,000,000 cows ; their value I cannot estimate. In the ITnited Kibgdom, there are 3,600,000 cows, and their milk, at 6d per gallon, produced £40,500,000. The interests involved in the factory are incalculable. First, the land is purchased ; the sawmills and timber merchants are consulted ; then the builder and skilled labourer cannot be dispensed with in the factory ; then the pig market. Thus life and breeding is stimulated, and the value of the cow is enchanced 30 per cent. Next men with teams are employed to haul the produce to the nearest station ; then the railway comes in for its share, and the steam company for a big «Hce. For J 00 tons (by-the-way a small lot, being only the

produce of two small factories) we pay freight and insurance £I2OO sterling. Consider 100 tons of cheese, the moderate produce of 1000 cows, sold at £6O per ton or 6£d per lb, there li £6OOO sterling gathered up from grass, which is now, and has been, completely wasted. And we have plenty of space for a thousand factories, which will pay like nothing else if we go the proper way to work. The next important matter is the disposal of our dairy produce. London is the great mart for which our produce must be prepared. If it suits that market it will suit the world. Let it be remembered that dairy produce is not like bales of wool and casks of of tallow. Ship through whom you may those goods are placed in the hands of a broker, advertised and sold in the auction mart. You may place your cheese and butter in the hands oft broker, but they are not sold by auction. The broker sells to the wholesale cheese merchant and he sells to the retailer; so, independent of all the profi's f iken out of the cheese on this side, vbich we have referred to, there are four profits; the person through whom you ship, the broker, the wholesale merchant, and the retailer. Now this is the problem for the factory to solve : How many of these intermediate profits can we save 1 We must do it, or our cheese will be sliced away until nothing remains. How easy it is. Have your own chambers and your own agent in London; consign direct to him and let him sell to the wholesale market and to the retail vendor, and every man that comes with money in his hand. Two chambers will be required, one on the river side and another in the centre, where all the fraternity in the provision, line meet at least four times every week. The whole matter is as simple as can be, and claims the serious consideration of all who are interested in the success of the dairy enterprise. There is not a trade in London so easy to manage as the butter trade. Only once establish a reputation for good butter, and you may land 10,000 firkins every Monday morning and one will not remain on Saturday evening.— William Bowroh.—Oamaru Mail.