Butter and Cheese Factories.

Manawatu Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 137, 20 November 1884, Page 4

Butter and Cheese Fa ctories.

(Taieri Advocate.) We hear that some of our local farmers are beginning to take into consideration the" question of establishing a dairy factory m the Taieri. One of the best known of them, who has evidently been making it his business to institute inquiries concerning the matter, informs us that he believes there would be no difficulty m starting such an enterprise m the Taieri. He also forwards us the following extract from au English trade cir- | cular which we willingly reprint. We are anxious to direct the attention of our farmers to this subject, and shall be quite willing to reprint any short, pithy articles giving information on the subject of the factory system of dairying: — Thirty years ago (you will please note this) the price of the j cheese made m the United States of America was but 2d to 2^d per lb on the average for the entire season. Now the total amount made throughout the United States, according to the last statistics, is 423,000,000 of pounds annually ; and the price has doubled, notwithstanding the enormous increase of production. Thirty or forty years ago there were made m the United States but forty to fifty millions of pounds of butter annually, worth but 5d to 6d per lb for fine goods ; now the total product is 1,250,000,000 of pounds annually, and the price for fine goods is now, with this stupendous production, averaged Is 4^ per \b\ And the total value of the cheese and butter products of the United States, is now, m round numbers, c^63,000,000. It may be interesting at this point to state that 1500 to 2000 tons of cheese are imported into Liverpool, England, weekly. We have stated, these figures m order that our farmer friends might have some notion of the possibilities of this vast industry. The greatest authorities on dairy matters m the world have stated it as their opinion that it is impossible Jo produce too much good cheese. The idea has been suggested that New Zealand has no market for the quantity of cheese her factories would produce ; but, having interested ourselves very much m this question, as one likely to trouble the projectors of dairy factories, we may affirm that it will be many, many years, and there will be many hundreds of factories, betore. New Zealand can make more than she can sell. India, China, Japan, the Australian colonies, and the Pacific are all good markets for New Zealand dairy produce, if prepared with especial regard to the requirements of the people of those countries, their modes of life, and their religious beliefs (this particularly so m the case of India ;) and therefore we feel sure that with all the teening millions of people near at hand, not to speak of the consumers m our Mother Country, the farmers m New Zealand can produce m the full consciousness that jkhey cannot produce too much of "anything that is good."