BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORIES.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1037, 21 May 1883, Page 2

BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORIES .

Mr Bowron talked very sweetly to the Hawera farmers on rThursday. He told them that “ when he first visited Ashburton he thought the land excellent; subsequently he had seen better in various parts of the south, but nothing that had come under his notice could in any way compare with what he had seen in this district for a capacity for growing dairy produce.” Coming from a man of Mr Bowron’s travelled experience, his utterance is deserving of the widest publicity in the interests of the district. It opens the road Jo the establishment of dairy factories by showing that the groundwork, so to speak, is all that can possibly be desired. He then went on to say, that—- “ His calculations ordinarily were that in the 40 weeks during which a cow gave milk in each year she would yield two gallons a day, or a total, during the period, of 560 gallons. This quantity of milk would produce 500r;wt. of cheese, which, in the London market, would be worth or 8d per lb: yes, it was worth 6£d —or about £ls. But that afternoon a farmer had shown him a 120acre paddock of grass, and had guaranteed that it would carry 100 cows for six months , he. had also . said that each of his cows was giving him 6 gallons of milk per day. He (Mr Bowron) could not understand it. He had never seen anything of the kind before, and it was utterly impossible until the experiment had been tried to say what would be the result at the end of the year, especially as the milk was so rich. He had always calculated that 3 gallons of milk would make 11b of butter in England, so in America, and in European countries; but here he found—and it had been demonstrated to be a fact—that 2 gallons of milk would make lib of butter. At a little factory he had seen near New Plymouth the milkgauge showed this in an unmistakenble manner. In Ashburton there was n*t an average of 12 per cent, of cream in the milk—the highest record was 13, and it ran down to 1\ in some cases;

but at the factory near New Plymouth, he was surprised to find that the average had actually been 17 per cent, 15 per cent, was considered to show marvellously rich milk, but Taranaki beat that, and, therefore, there was no doubt whatever that the milk was all that could be desired. Indeed he said without fear of contradiction that there was no finer grazing district than it in the colonies—it'was a beautiful,open, healthy place, with plenty of water for the cattle, and splendid grass—and the farmers could not do better than go in for cheese-making.” We have given the above extract from Mr Bowron’s remarks, because what be said is equally applicable to this district. Farmers should no longer hesitate to call a meeting and discuss the advisableness of starting this industry. According to Mr Bowron substantial dividends may be expected, and they could find any amount of sale for the cheese in London and Australia. He thought they might have fifty factories, bringing in a million annually into the district. Such visions of wealth are overpowering, but we quite believe that a very large sum of money might enrich the district by means of the dairy factory industry. It is too important for farmers to lose sight of altogether.