FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 58, 2 April 1909, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

THE DAIRY SEASON. SxIGiVS OF THE END. A RETROSPECT. Some of the expurl contract* fur dairy produce will expire at tile cud of this i mouth, and others will gradually fall in at later dales. '"A month or six weeks hence most »f tho factories will be running only oa alternate days, and from that time.onward the entire closing or factories for the winter will gradually take place. To some extent the dates of these different stages, of course, will be varied by the weather and the amount of feed prevailing iu the meantime. It is a time fur looking back and reviewing the season; a time for counting the takings, noting the faults and making resolutions for another yearn guidance. ' Huh it been a paying season? To those factories who sold outright it has been a handsome season. The suppliers will get lid and H'/jjd per pound for the ■season's buttcr-lal. This is munificent. I'V once at least the men who buy butler and cheese have done the factories good. From one buyer alone it is estimated the factories have received £50.000 mote than they would have got ir they had "consigned." But those who consigned will not have such satisllect suppliers to deal with. To tliem the returns iu prices will be "only middling.'' ! But even in their ease they have no cause to grumble at the total result of the season. "Only middling" prices on top of tne voluminous (low of milk that this season has produced gives a total result that every dairy-farmer with a liver iu a reasonable state of health ought to be thankful for. All round it has been a good season. Possibly after the drought lessons of the preceding year many farmers laid down extra reserves of fodder. With the abundance of grass which this season has produced the fodder might almost seem to have been superfluous, although where the farmers used it aaid noted its benefit even in a season oi plenty the lesson taught will very, likely in many cases bear permanent fruit. The exportation of butter will soon stop, and the storing of butter for the local winter trade will begin. It is too early to speculate as to the chances of i shortage next winter. The recent rains had mi appreciable influence on tho milk yield in Taranaki, where the rainfall was heaviest, and if, pcrclianee, we were to have a mild late autumn and early frinter as marked as that which lias been experienced in Britain, there might 'bo a very heavy production of autumn and winter butter. It would be a real ']iity if exact information of the future were to become now available to shatter all opportunity for the thril-' ling speculation which always ushers in a New Zealand dairying winter. Thanks to the veil that hides the future, one can always start"the talk across the boundary-fence by observing that there may, or may not, bo poor prices next winter, but that it will be morally sale to wager that there won't be. The exportation of cheese will continue longer; not because tho cheesefarmers possess any particular skill in prolonging the milk flush, but only because there is not the same necessity to store up for the needs of New Zealand. New Zealanders don't eat cheese. When butter supplies were running low last year, some people were perturbed lest they should be unable to obtain their weekly supplies regularly till the cows "came in" again. But if we ran right short of cheese, it is quite coneeivaMe Hint lots of us would not give it a thought. Most New Zealanders could stand a twelve months' siege without cheese in the utmost comfort. If supplies of cheese became distinctly limited and no reinforcements were possible for a substantial period, it is doubtful if the wildest of speculators would risk paying very high prices to corner the market. So our elieese -lactones will go on exporting to Britain, where the st'olid worker appreciates his nutritious cheese for lunch or supper. Last year, at end of April, there were over 20,000 boxesover lO.OOOcwt—of butter put by in the cold stores of New Zealand, .because the expectations of a winter shortage, caused by tho drought and the low milk flow, had made a shortage appear imminent. It will he well remembered, also, whnt an outcry there was from buyers in England and New Zealand because they wei'o not getting as much butter from , their factories as they had contracted for and expected. They had bought cheaply, and were selling dearly in Britain, and they had a, suspicion that the factory directors of New Zealand had '•swung" some of their output over to the Joeal markets, where fat prices were ruling, or were quietly putting it into cold stores for use later, when "the eon-tract period had expired. There was hot talk of actions for damages at the time.

But this roar it is doubt'nil if there will be 2000 boxes in store, even at the end of March. For there are no immediate prospects of a shortage. On the whole, the New Zealand dairy-farmers, whether sellers or consigners, have a balance, to cause overflowing in their cup of the year's experienccs.'for thankfulness.—Dominion.