The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, OCTOBER 30, 1901.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 250, 30 October 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, OCTOBER 30, 1901.

BUTTER TRADE, i A Sot'J iiEiix journal, dealing witli the 1 butter-making industry, points out ! that Groat Britain’s homo production j of butter will not he increased, at auv ! rate for some time, so that tiio balk of her wants will have to be supplied from outside countries. The growth in the dairy herds and production at \ Home is far below the expansion in population. Messrs Weddell and Co., in their latest report - our contemporary states), show this clearly by statistics, and state that such facts are a strong testimony to the incflieieuey of the methods and the lack of ability j of British farmers to compete successfully with their confreres both in the newly settled territories of our colonies and in the old established and long cultivated farms of the countries of Europe. An excuse often put forward on behalf of the British farmers j is that it pays them much hotter to sell their milk for human consumption i in the large towns of the United Kingdom than to make it into butter ior cheese. This excuse only makes I the matter worse, for while it proves ' that the British dairy farmer makes | more money from iiis milk than his i colonial or foreign competitor, he yet ! fails to keep abreast with them. The •number of cows per 1000 of the ■ population is steadily declining, being 105.9 for the live years ending 1 s9t>, and 101.0 for the next live years, while for the live years ending 1900 it is ot'ily 100.;!. There is very little doubt that the main reason why the Homo production of buttor does not increase is that the knowledge of howto make butter on a commercial scale, equal to the quality made in the colonies and foreign countries, is unitnown to British farmers generally. In most foreign countries and in the colonies, tho Government bv means of experimental stations, colleges, schools and tho publication among tho farmers of the results of their experiments, aud of agricultural research generally, have educated tho farmers in their business to a degree unknown in Great Britain. There is no doubt that a profitable market will be found in (Treat Britain for all the buttor New Zoaland can produce for a long time to come.