DAIRY FACTORIES.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 396, 30 September 1884, Page 2

DAIRY FACTORIES.

Slowly but surely the principle of cooperative dairy farming is gaining in public favor. At Wyndham the matter was deemed of sufficient importance to justify the thriving Farmers' Club there in calling a public meeting to discuss it Similar steps are being taken at Mataura; and farther North, at Milton, ■ingularly energetic steps are being taken tc the same end. It is not necessary to preach caution upon embarking upon a scheme of the kind. Not only would injudicious haste involve a first loss, but it would raise a prejudice which would h& hurtful to future undertakings of the kind. But in this matter our local farmers can well be trusted to "hasten slowly." Indeed, perhaps, they aro a little inclined to hasten too slowly. But there are now abundant data which go to prove the dairy factories have passed beyond the experimental stage, even in ' STew Zealand. We recently published .the annual report of the Waikato Cheese and Bacon Factory. Although there was a trifling loss of LB2 odd on the first J rear's operations, yet the source of the oss was so obvious and so easily removable by experience that next year a splendid profit can be depended upon. Even with the {trifling loss upon the actual working operations, the net gain to the district must have been very large. No less ft sum L3OOO was distributed

among the surrounding farmers, and this sum it. must be borne in mind was literally extractedfrom the soil. One gentleman, d prominent supplier of milk, stated that he had receired a return o£ L 8 per cow for five months that the factory was in operation^andhad besides reared his calves. Then we have the testimony of a geiltleman who has contributed largely to the Edendale factory ever since its establishment, and who derived L 7 per head from his cows for the season. As the price given for milk at Waikato was 4d per gallon, and that at Edendale somewhat less, it may be presumed that the quality of cows must have been about the same in both places. There has been a little difference, however, in the return of cheese from each gallon of milk. The result at the Northern factory was 15 ozs of cheese to the gallon ; while in the S outh wo are accustomed to expect the full pound from the same quantity. It wouldjnot be surprising to find that the difference was due to the machinory employed. All experience tends to show that a dairy factory is not complete without the utilization of the waste material for the production of bacon. This in itself will give an incentive to the keeping of a good breed of pigs of moderate size instead of the "Captain Uookers" unfortunately so common ; and far more important than the improvement in the breed of pigs would be the inevitable improvement both in the method of farming and the breed of cattle employed. "We j have too much depended upon everlasting, oats. What must be the feelings of fdrmers whose exigencies compelled them to sell their oats three months ago for Is (5d a bushel, and who now find stocks in the hands of capitalists and 2s Bel demanded for them ! Were a dairy factory established in every suitable centre farmers would be in a state of independence almost. The return is almost immediate, and is not a fluctuating one. And there has been great misconception as to the labor required. Of course rotation of pasture must be provided, but that costs infinitely less toil than cropping. The other labor is milking and the transport of the milk to the factory. The drudgery of dairying is there, under the influence of labor saving machinery, completely abolished, and a man can turn out sOOlbs of cheese of uniform quality with less trouble than a farmer's wife nas with her 3Olbs. We are convinced that the establishment ol dairy factories would cause a very great gain to farmers not only in this but every other district. There is j,a* limitless market for butter, oheese, and bacon in the old country, and our insular and geographical position points directly to the proof that Kew Zealand is an eminently suitable source of supply. The great ;* luxuriance of the artificial grasses must have shown farmers that grazing produces a much more certain and payable result than cropping, and we confidently expect that the futile race £qp wealth out of oats will soon be a thing of the past, in Southland at all events.