KING COUNTRY DAIRYING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 571, 28 May 1913, Page 5

KING COUNTRY DAIRYING.

A WAITOMO PROJECT. TO COMMENCE NEXT SEASON. For some time paat the settlers in the Waitomo district have been, contemplating going in for dairying on a fairly extensive scale, and in one or two instances they have neen supplying to the Te Kuiti dairy factory. However, the industry has been confined to those who have been established for some years, and have been able to send their cream to the railway with little trouble. Mr John Davia, at the Caves, has been dairying for some time, and Mr G. Wratten, who is considerably further out, has been supplying cream during the past season. Much of the land of the district is rather broken, but there are some fine stretches cf country on the majority of holdings, which are admirably adapted for milking on. Realising that the most profitable branch of the farming business lies in dairying a number of the progressive settlers convened a meeting for Monday last and invited Mr J. Boddie, chairman of directors of the Te Kuiti factory, to attend. The settlers assembled at the homestead of Messrs Wood Bros., on the Hauturu road, and the matter of supplying Te Kuiti factory was discussed. Mr McLean presided, and invited Mr Boddie to explain the conditions under which the company waß prepared to receive the supply from ] the district. Mr Boddie explained the position and emphasised the fact that the factory was on co-operative lines and was run entirely in the interests of the suppliers. He pointed out that with home-separation dairying was possible to settlers in districts gjch as Waitomo where the establishing of a factory on the best lines was an impossibility. Eventually, on the motion of Mr Wratten, seconded by Mr Wood, it was decided that the settlers present agree to supply Te Kuiti factory. The settlers present included Messrs Wood Bros., Diamond Bros., McLean, Wratten, Fitzherbert, and Perrot. It was stated that several others would probably join in the project. Mr Boddie said the company would be prepared to erect receiving stations where necessary and make a contract with a man approved of by the settlers to cart the cream.

Si It was estimated that at least three hundred cows would be milked for the factory in that locality, and this number would be augmented by an additional two hundred from the Caves district. The road is being metalled and there will be little difficulty in carting after the first season. Several of the settlers intend installing milking machines. Messrs Wood Bros, already have a machine on the ground all ready for setting up in time to comI mence milking in the spring.