MR. RETEMEYER'S EXPERIENCE.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 145, 27 May 1893, Page 2

MR. RETEMEYER'S EXPERIENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Sir, — I have not been able to take advantage of Mr Retemeyer's. ofter, re calling on him to show me all bis figures : how he arrived at the additional yield of £127 13s 6d in three years, by using a cream separator, instead of pan-setting, for milk. I saw in the- Auckland Weekly News (2 issues back) a contributor's experience on separator v. pan-setting. Ha one day set his milk in pans and next day separated it. He continued this for some time, and he found, except on muggy days and very cold and warm days, he got as much by pan-setting as he did by the separator. I wonder what system Mr Betemeyer used during the. three years he was testing the separator v. pan-setting. Now, sir, allowing Mr Retemeyer's additional yield to be 10 per cent., and that his increase of cream, represented in one year, was £43, we find that his income of butter alone was in one year £430, 19 weaner calves at 80s £28 10s, say 9 pigs at 20s £9, yield £43, total £510 10s. Not a bad sum certainly, but enough to strengthen the hands of our present Government in their scheme of small farms. (Mr Retemeyer's land, which he was farming, was under 100 acres). Now, Mr Editor, if we look at this money as a weekly wage affair we find it within a shade of £10 a week. We find, also, those cows of his averaged for throe year nearly £26 per cow. Now, for Mr Betemeyer to prove all these things to me, or any other person, by his figures. I should say they are wonderfully and fearfully made up. Now, Mr Editor, before our City Fathers decide what they will light our borough with, gas or electricity, I would humbly suggest to them to examine some of the, land about the Kiwitea stream, as I believe there is as much gas there at. times as would blow up Feilding. And if they could only manage to put a safety valve on it, they could utilize, it for lighting our borough at a moderate cost. — lam, etc., Inquires.