FIFTY YEARS' GROWTH OF BAIRYING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 6, 2 October 1907, Page 2

FIFTY YEARS' GROWTH OF BAIRYING.

THE FLOOD-TIDE OF PROGRESS. Tlio dairying industry is to-day a centre of great activity and optimism. It really becaino "of. ago" about'.the year 1882, when the value of tho ex-ports-jumped from tho £15,000 of the previous year to £62,000. Butter and cliccso had been exported for thirty or moro years previously, but with poor vim and in irregular quantities. Even as far back as 1860 tho value of the exports was £10,000, but next year it fell to. £2000. In 1869 the value was £22,700, but ten years later it was only £2250. All this time apparently dairymen wero wrestling with tho same problem as is exercising them now—"ls it to bo butter or cheese?" See how they jumped from butter to cheese, and from cheese to butter:— Butter Cheese Exported. Exported. 1860 ... £6623 £3535 . 1861 ... £126 £1844 ! 1866 ... £1590 £65 186S ... £532 £1240 From 1882 onwards, however, the supplies wero more regular, and the tide of progress swept on unchecked till to-day. Every year since 1897 has been a record year for value of exports, but last year's increase was the greatest of all. Thero' is just now - re-adjustment going on among the factories, owing to the high prices /ruling for cheese; and no doubt nost year's figures will show a great increase in tho output of that article and a corresponding decrcaso in tho butter. 'In 1901 our dairy industry was in tho hands of 4702 dairy farmers, and their 4369 assistants. Thoy possessed 372,416 cows. To-day tho men of tho milk-pail number 7172, and they employ 5496 holpers (including members of their families). They own 604,000 cows. In 1891 an averago dairy cow gave a surplus of £1 3s. worth of produce for export after supplying local requirements; in 1901 the value was about £3 Os. 2Jd-; and in 1906-7 £3 I's. Old. In tho early days tho profits' from cows wore erratic; and the market limited. To-day tho market is, for our purposes, unlimited, and the average total incomo from butter fat alone on a good daily farm is at least £10 per cow per annum.