The Dairy Industry.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 301, 25 June 1895, Page 2

The Dairy Industry.

• In reviewing the prospects of the dairy industry for next season. Messrs Weddel and Co., of London, write aa follows :— " The general opinion of those well qualified to judge is that the decline will continue, but the data on which this gloomy forecast rests, seem to be somewhat imperfect, and the position is not without some more hopeful features. It must be remembered that the present low prices are to a great extent due to the enormous increase in the raw material for butter — grass, hay, and other fodder — which nature supplied so bountifully and so abnormally all over Europe during the summer of 1894. If a similar abundant summer should prevail this year (which is mcs*. improbable), even then it is not certain that the supplies will be as large as last. There is no evidence to show that the increased production of 1894 was biought about by the opeaing on a great scale of new factories, nor is it at all probable, after the experience of such excessively low p ices, that any important extension of (ro'uctive appliances will be made. It is far more reasonable to assume that the losses which dairymen aid others have incurred everywhere will act as an incentive to turn their energies in some other direction. The dominant factor in the situation is that of the European hay crop, and on the scarcity or abundance of this haigs almost everything ; but it is too early yet to found an opinion of any value as to either probability. The fall in price this season is has been extraordinarily heavy and therefore it ia reasonable to expect some recovery in yalue when the circumstances which produced the disturbance have passed away. How much the rise in price may be it is impossible to estimate, bat it will not be wise to calculate on any great improvement." Cheese— The same fertility of pasture which produced such an extraordinary in butter during the summer of 1894 also enormously augmented the output of English and European cheese, but did not affect the American and Canadian makes, because the crops of hay and grass in those countries were only normal. As fourfifths of our imported cheese comes from the American continent it is evident that the abnormal season only affected one fifth of our foreign supply and, therefore, there was not such a corresponding increase in the supplies of cheese as in those of butter ; yet the increased import for the last nine months has been a thousand tons a month in excess of last year. This large supply of foreign cheese, combined with the increase of Home-made, has naturally depreciated values, which are now from 6s to 10s per cwt below the corresponding period of last year. Canada and the United States hold the same dominant position in our cheese supply as Denmark and Sweden do in butter, consequently the rise and fall in values depend very largely upon the scarcity, or abundance, of the production there. For the coming season new factories are being erected throughout Canada wherever there is a good opening; therefore, if the crops are favorable, the supply will be largely increased, and as Canada alone supplies half the cheese we import, the prospects for higher prices next year are not very bright.