The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1922. DECLINE IN DAIRYING.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 704, 3 February 1922, Page 4

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1922. DECLINE IN DAIRYING.

“We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”

The recent drop in ,the price of butter-fat is causing quite a number of farmers in the Franklin district to restrict operations for a time at least. The general feeling is that manures cannot be bought this .season, and so op-dressing, etc., will, in very many cases go undone. The poor prices ruling for young stock is also having a depressing effect in some quarters, and it is likely that many promising young heifers will be killed, as they cost more to feed than they will bring in the open market.

But already there are glimmerings of brighter times. Butter-fat is steadying and will gradually ascend the scale. The lessons of the drop in prices should be brought home to each and every dairy farmer in this district and throughout the Dominion, that only quality counts in the big game of dairying. That any cow is not necessarily a profit producer, andi that the cow which gives the highest 1 quality for a given quantity of good feed is the farmers’ real friend. Further, there must he no waste land given over to blackberry and weeds/ each quarter acre must pay ijs interest by giving an adequate x*etuml for the capital expended. If farmers v/ill only take these lessons to heart farm as a business, the drop in price to-day may mean greater prosperity to-morrow., The present position cannot last—a return to normal bqft not abnormal prosperity must naturally comej, and it is up to every farmer to grit his teeth and “keep on keepin’ on.”