THE BUTTER INDUSTRY.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 198, 20 February 1895, Page 2

THE BUTTER INDUSTRY.

It will be remembered that a Home cablegram was recently published informing us that the Danish producers of butter were combining to undersell Australian butter in the English market. At the first glance this looked serious, and, without a moment's thought, some of our farmers at once jumped at the conclusion that the bottom had dropped out of the butter trade But this cannot be so. The question naturally arises, Cian New Zealand compete with Denmark or any other country in the production of butter ? New Zealand it has been often pointed out, possesses a climate unsurpassed in the world. There is an abundance of green feed and pure water all the year round, and although the changes in the weather may be somewhat sudden at times, yet neither extremes of he^t nor of cold are ex ■ •rienced, therefore dairy stock does not require to be housed and hand fed during the winter season as is the case in Denmark. The New Zealand farmer is only now learning the first principles of butter making, that is, tit fur export to compete in the great markets of the world, but as soon as he has gained greater knowledge we teei confident that he will, with the exercise of a little economy in some directions, and judicious expenditure of labor in others, prove that he can | make as good an article and place it • a the market at as cheap a rate as he same class of European produce, whether F.ngHsh or Danish. Al though there undoubtedly is at present a depression to some considerable extent in the English iiKirhet, yet that i> not a good and sufficient cause for dairy farmers t" lose heart, although they may still be obliged to accept prices which may not be so remunerative as they at first anticipated As far as the Cheltenham Dairy Company is concerned, tliey have been paying a fairly remunerative price for milk, but in the face of recent events will probably, like other dairy compun'os, have to pay a lower price for a 1 out two months, to milk suppliers, who have up to the present been rcc- iving at the rate of about 7^d a pound for their butter without the trouble of churning. Supposing a reduction is made it wi]J only be for a short period, for the winter months are fast approaching when the local market will improve.