EXTENSION OF THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3152, 6 September 1892, Page 2

EXTENSION OF THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

The importance of the agricultural and pastoral interest to this district removes any necessity for an apology in again referring to it. In a previous article we touched upon the almost inevitable result arising from the enormous quantities of Australian mutton which will, in the near future, be thrown upon the English market in competition with our own. The effect of this must be to depress prices to the growers still further, whilst necessitating greater care in breeding and handling. No class of sheep breeders will feel this altered state of affairs so quickly or so keenly as the owners of large estates, the profits from which durinß the past year or so have been so largely due to the improved prices obtainable for sheep, and in a lesser degree of late for cattle. The position of the small farmer is in this respect relatively much stronger, inasmuch as in the case of any marked change in the demand or profit* from any class of stock, he is usually able, without much risk or loss, to shift from sheep to cattle, or it may be, enter into a course of grain-growing. To use a wellknown adage, " His eggs are not all in one basket," and in any case they are more under control. But this is not the case with the big estates. Cumbersome to work, and involving, in the majority of instanaes, the outlay of very large sums before any return whatever is obtained, and even then only suitable for a number of years after reclamation for grazing sheep and cattle, any probable decline in the profits from these sources becomes therefore a serious matter, and one that is calculated to have a prejudical effect upon the further developments of many of them. There is, however, one branch of agriculture which might, and we fully believe will yet be profitably carried on in connection with these large estates, but which has not received that attention, which its value, as a means of profitably occupying lands and what is of even greater importance giving them a standard value, requires. This is the dairy industry. In suggesting that dairying should occupy a more prominent position, than it has hitherto held, in the management of large estates, it is not with the idea that the employes of the companies ur large individual owners should personally carry on the business. The principle of co-operation might here be put into practice, with the very best results. This is by cutting up suitable portions of the large holdings into handy sized farms to he leased or sold to bona fide dairymen, much in the same manner as the Waikato Land Association did at Tauwhare, the estates still further assisting by erecting or helping to erect, -butter and cheese factories. It is perhaps scarcely to be expected that this departure would result in an immediate profit to the estate owners, and it would also entail some additional outlay at first. But the financial wisdom of thus removing some of their eggs from the one basket which is now represented solely by the breeding and fattening of sheep and cattle, by devoting portions of their properties to the development of such a reliable industry as that of dairying noes, we consider, without saying. Those who hold a large stake in the country, must necessarily look well ahead, und it appears to us, that if the various companies who, in the majority of cases have been unavoidably forced into the position of large land owners, could by this means establish colonies <>f practical dairymen upon their estates to the mutual benefit of both, they would be acting in a manner worthy of the responsible position devolving upon them. They would be assisting to develop a trade of "the utmost importance to the colony at large and at the same time be doing a great deal towards establishing an enhanced and permanent value to their lands.