Page 11 Advertisements Column 1

Waikato Times, Volume 120, Issue 20889, 22 August 1939, Page 11

fe« £23a: .W'^j2t <•'••- c' i-»s> £?? Efi ?:& £7) m gg ss YESTERDAY Truly remarkable is the story of the evolution of the dairy industry in the Waikato since the pioneering days of 50 years ago. The early eighties saw the introduction of the first cheese factories. However , these were before their time as suitable transport facilities were non-existent. The companies simply had to go out of business. It was not until the Great War that cheese manufacturing was revived to any great extent. In the year 1886 the first creamery was erected at Pukekura, near Cambridge, by Mr Henry Reynolds. From the manufacturing point of view the initial trouble was the small supply. In those days dairying was regarded as a side line and not as the mainstay of the farm as it is to-day. For a long time Mr Reynolds struggled to develop a payable business with a supply yielding about half-a-hundredweight of butter per day. However, Mr Reynolds laid the foundations of what has become New Zealand's greatest export trade. He overcame what appeared to be insuperable difficulties . . . shocking roads, inadequate supply and lack of satisfactory financial facilities. m 'iiTsViS iliiil «. For Your USE J i wl I 0 nnirY Compa nteS " J , storekeeper & Da J cQ LTDII fertiliser Merck -^=== MpTHOR^ m ?x& m ZJ& £23 feTS SB <& £33 iSSf'iTTr -•’•■nr ti&s ■TO-DAY So phenomenal has been the progress of dairy farming in this district that the Waikato to-day would not be recognised as the same farming centre as 50 years ago. During the comparatively short span of 50 years it has become known as the dairy farm of the British Empire, and richly does it deserve this title, for there is no area in the world so abundantly enedowed by Nature and put to profitable use by the hand of man than the farm lands of the Waikato. There was a time when the Waikato was held to compare unfavourably with other farming districts in the Dominion, but with the aid of fertilisers it has rapidly become the heaviest dairy - producing district not only of the Dominion but of the world. During recent years between 80,000 and 100,000 tons of dairy produce have been sent from the district annually , while annual killings of pigs have increased up to over 300,000. Not only pigs but also fat lambs have become an important adjunct to dairying and the annual production of fat lambs is estimated at between 400,000 and 500,000. However, despite all the revenue that comes from pigs, fat lambs and chilled cattle, it is the dairy cow that still remains paramount and it is not likely that her throne will ever be usurped. m & & p K m