CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 229, 24 October 1903, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Wo do not hoid ourselves responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents,] BIXTKBN POUNDS TKN SHILLINGS KETUIW PER COW. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, - Your readers may like to know how soma cf our Waiiarapa dairies pay, and compare the returns with those on the West Ooast. Allow me to instance rue belonging to Mr and Mrs Jumcs Thompson, of Ward's Line, near Greytown. Mis Thoraps'.n urA her family maraago the dairy (without hired labi u.-), i as Mr Thompson is a fawmiller, The| milk is senr, info thn Greytown Cheese : Factory. This herd consists ot 21 cows, j but as eorae of the rows did not come ■n uv.til after February, owing folate cubing, their milk could no'; ba included in the factory year, Mrs Thompson averaging hn cows at 18 for the factory year, disposing of her winter's milk elsewhere. She received from the factory ,£274 lis, which she estimated gave her £ls 5s per cow. Also £26 for pigs; 2s 6d per head for .six calves, and four heifer calves saved a-ad reared, worth 30s per head, or a gross return of £307 6s, without the ( winter's milk. Divide this by 18 gives £l7 Is 5-} d per cow, but as some of the extra cows', March and April, milk went to the factory, she considers £l6 10s a fair average of the year's rßturn during the factory year. Her land consists of different separate small pieces, totalling some 120 acres, upon which she runs other young stock besides her dairy cows. It was for the original tenant (with others) of one of these pieces of land, in the year 1881, that I had the honor of proposing the co-operative system of dairy faiming in Nbw Zealand. It would not be. fair to divide (he gross return from her cows by 21, us Mrs Thompson has not considered her winter's milk. What she tells me is that she averages her direct factory return at £ls 5s per cow, One of her last cows, I am glad to say, is a half-bred Holstein (although I was told that I should ruin my herd oi cattle when, in 1888, I brought the Holsteins into the North Island for the use of the dairy farmers), As to the Greytown Cheese Factory itself, iff return was 4|d and two-thirds of e farthing per lOib gallon of milk; Park vale (a neighbouring factory) gave 5.0? per .10|!b gallon, and Mr Pearson (of the well-known firm of butter buyers) thought Parkvale the best return in the colony. Working the season ou*, however, with Mr Nicol (the Secretary of the Greytown Dairy Company), he found that if he added a 20th to the Greytown return for the 10 lb gallon, as against the 10£ lb gallon, the figures would be 5-08 for the Parkvale as against 5-14 for the Greytown, or decimal six points in favour of the latter. I need not say that lam very pleased at thip, seeing that the Greytown Factor? was the first Cooperative Dairy Factory established in the whole of these Australasian colonies, and it is pleasant indeed to find it still holding pride of pince as giving the best return cf any dairy factory in New Zealand. Of course I write subject to correction, as 1 sbou'd be ghd to hoar of tiDy factory or any dairy farmer's cows in your province doing bett-r than the ins v ances mentioned above. I am told of another instance near Carterton where a farmer netted £l4 par cow. But reducing Mrs Thompson's return to say £ls par cow for the seaeoD, what a loss results to the colony by rearing bullocks for three or four years, and then only to get £lO a head for them. One reason, I may say, of Greytown's gain over Parkvale lies in the fact that it paid ordinary salaries to its workpeople, and did not j let the make up of the cheese by contract. The B?lvidere and -Taratahu Factories (in the Carterton District) both tried- the system, and abandoned it in favour of the wage system. I am glad to be able to give the above figures, seeing that whilst every Premier we have had since 1881 (excepting Mr Ballance), has done'his Utmost to plunge us into enormous debt, these dairy farms with the factory system is the one thing which will save the colony when these spendthrift politicans have passed away. Strong efforts have been made by the present Government to tax the milk, and it will succeed eventually in doing so, unless a party arises who will insist upon a cessation of borrowing, and a reduction in our enormous taxation. £am, ete, Coleman Phillips. Richmond-roar', Carterton, October 12th, 1903.