The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, SEPT. 22 1906. DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1565, 22 September 1905, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, SEPT. 22 1906. DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Otjr telegrams have contained important advice from Mr JV A. Kinsella, Chief Dairy Commissioner, to dairy farmers,'and it is interesting in connection therewith to give a summary of a speech made by Mr Kinsella at Cambridge. Before dealing with the subject of dairying in Denmark and the Argentine, he gave some information regarding South Africa. It had been stated, he said, that' South Africa was a good place to emigrate to. His experience of the country, however, so far as agriculture was concerned, was not of a very encouraging nature. In, the Transvaal (where he held a Government appointment) it would be some years before agriculture would show any development. In the first place, they required a system of irrigation throughout many of the districts, which, of course, would cost a lot of money. A good deal was being done n importing stock ; two or three experimental farms , had been started ; and they were going in for the poultry business., But until settlers were encouraged on the land, the progress of farming in the Transvaal would be small. In Natal, he found that the greater number of the cows were milked by natives, who allowed the calf to run with the cow during the time the animal was in milk. Some of the land there was very good, and fruit-growing was carried on. The Orange Eiver Colony was the best'part of South Africa so far as agriculture was concerned. They were going in for grain-growing in (conjunction with dairying. Mr’Kin sella said he visited some of the smaller dairy factories in Cape Colony, and although the system of milking there was better than in Natal, yet they were far, behind Australia and New Zealand in their dairying methods. Large quantities of wine were being mkde and exported, graingrowing was also gone in for. As regards South Africa as a market for New Zealand, produce, he thought there was a good opening in that country for some time to come, particularly in butter, cheese and 1 baconi The small shipments of bacon had been highly appreciated, and the only complaint was that they could not get enough of it. Now Zealand, however, was not trying to build up a trade with South;Africa so far as butter was concerned, \ He had received letters recently from that country complaining that they’ - could -hot' get a proper supply, but he thought that was due to the fact that, better prices were realised for our butter ip the Home market,. and. until South Africa could pay a higher , price , for her butter, it would, be no • use catering■ for her. Proceeding to deal with his visit to the Argentine, Mr Kinsella said that he had made a long report on the subject,' but it had been brought down as a Parliamentary paper underthe heading of Department of Industries and Commerce, and therefore it was not very widely circulated. However, he was now endeavoring to get the report published and distributed among settlers. He said he visited a large number of the farms in the Argentine, including Mr Henry Reynolds’, and found the Spaniards employed Basutos to do the milking, the system being similar to that in vogue in Natal. Very crude and out-of-date methods and appliances , were in existence, the old-fashioned Alexandra separators being used, and he could hardly understand how they could work on these lines and pay a fairly decent price to milk suppliers. But what he wanted to impress upon the people of New Zealand was the fact that the Argen-

tine was fanning on cheap land and also with cheap labor as compared with 42 days’ steam from New Zealand. He pointed out that if the Argentine people woke up to a better system of feeding, breeding, milking, manufacturing, etc., they could bring about a revolution in dairying ; they could treble their output in the course of a few years. He quoted statistics to show the growing increase in agricultural development in the country. Suitable land could be bought there from 15s to £3 10s per acre, and land with atock oacQuiclborente^OQPhare.s,

Artosian wells could be sunk almost anyanywkere, and prolific feod orops wore grown, tlie climate boing similar to that of Now Zealand. There was plonty of coal in the country, and also timber for making railway sleepers. A good number of British farmers had sottlod in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres, and considerable British capital had boon invested. Reviewing the prospects of the buttor trade generally, with the lilcolihood of an enormous increase in the exports from Siberia and the. awakening of tho Argentine to bettor methods, ho was inclined to tho opinion that in the noar futuro Now Zealand must bo prepared to accept a lowor price for tho dairy produce. They would no doubt find it hard to make a profit, particularly so in districts in Taranaki, where mixed farming was carried on. But he did not wish to throw ■ cold

water on the high price of land, but simply ventured the opinion, so that farmers could see the need of a oheap er cost of production, in order to con serve the profits of the industry. From the Argentine, he proceeded to London, and discovered that some of the best, brands of our butter greatly deteriorated in quality in transit from the colony. He had pointed out this drawback since his return to New Zealand, but so far no steps had been taken to remedy the : complaint. _ The Danes had been confronted with a similar difficulty, but they had remeed it by adopting a system of comlsory pasteurisation, which was the p u ly way to deal with the matter. Mr Oninsolla explained how the Danes checked packages of butter sent Home. Their system of milking was, ho said the clpanost in the world. The system of pasteurising the milk would, natu - ally entail a groat expense in (being established in .this country, but the system had worked wonders in Denmark. In that country they had also a splendid system of weeding out inferior cows, the speaker stated that New Zealand was not doing what she ought in this connection. The speaker explained how the farmers combined into associations or societies, and gob the Government to appoint officials to test the hords. He stated the system of testing herds and also seeds had revolutionised farming in Canada. He detailed how the Danes milked their herds in the open air, and the systematic and careful way in which they farmed their properties. Mr Kinsella laid special stress upon the necessity of properly wintering dairy cows in order to obtain the best results.