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Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1924, Page 2

I A Danish expert in dairying, Lieutenant F. Mourier-Petersen, 11110 lias lieen having a look at some of the dairy farms of the North Island passed through Wellington tin's week on his way to the South Island. He expressed himself as greatly j leased by what he has seen of dairying in this country. Lieutenant Mnureir-l’etersen’s purpose in travelling through Now Zealand is to gather information for the Danish Royal Agricultural Society in respect to the dairying methods employed in New Zealand. In the course of his travels since his arrival in this country he has visited some of the best dairy farms in the North Island, and he mentions that before coining here he spent four months in Australia, gaining an insight into the conditions ill New South Wales. Queensland, and Victoria. He thinks New Zealand is a lieautiful and fertile country, and ho finds various re.spee.ts in which it differs considerably from his homeland. The daily factories here are very much different from those of Denmark. In Denmark there are 1000 factories for 1,300.000 cows. The farmers there take all tile milk to the factories, and they receive back 80 per cent, of the skim milk on which they feed their pigs. In this way they have built up a big trade with Britain in bacon. In Denmark the holdings are small, mostly of from 15

to GO acres, and what bi holdings there are, aro old estates. The secret of Denmark’s success in topping the prices on the English market, Lieutenant Alouricr-Peterson thinks, is its insistence on exporting only the best of its butter. There, he contends, lies the reason for its heading the pricelists. In addition, Denmark can place its produce on the London market in 21 hours, and, therefore, does not have to preserve it. In one important respect he found that New Zealand methods differed from those of the Danes. AVliercns many New Zealand farmers go in for cross-bred cattle, the Danes pin their faitli to pure-breds, generally Friesians.

Confidence in the future of the wool trade was expressed hy Sir Thomas Henderson, of the woollen manufacturing firm of limes, Henderson and Co., of Hawick, Scotland, who arrived at Auckland, hy the Alaheno on Tuesday. Sir Thomas confessed himself puzzled to explain the fall in prices’at New Zealand sales, where the offerings were chiefly eross-hred, because he thought the extremely high prices being obtained for nierinoos would force manufacturers to take more of the coarser fluidities. Ever since the war the rage has been for the finest nierinoos, as the demand was for the finest and softest materials, llritish factories could turn out a very fine article from the hotter grades of' cross-broils however, and Sir Thomas anticipated that more attention would he turned to this class of wood. Trade had been very bad, but it was picking up, and the future promised to Ik? quite good. One of the factors favouring the demand for crossbred and responsible for the rapid absorption of tin* great surplus left after the war was the fashion for women’s knitted garments. Such a fashion and a greater or influence on the trade as a whole than people imagined. Moreover, the use of wool generally had greatly increased The amount used hv the world per head of population was prolmbly .j() per cent more than it was twentylive years ago, and there was also the increase in population to he taken into account. .Most countries were using more wool, and some new •countries, especially ill the Far Hast, had entered the market as consumers. Against this had to he set the fact that the world’s clip had decreased owing to the serious fall in numbers of sheep. There was talk of substitutes for wool, such as artificial silk, and dilution of wool with cotton, hut these substitutes would not serve the same purpose as wool, especially in the colder countries. Sir Thomas concluded that the future of the wool trade, both for the farmer and the manufacturer, could lie regarded with confidence.