FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 236, 10 February 1911, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY

WI3AT CHANCE FOII CHEESE? THE CHANCES OVERSEA. The reciprocity agreement between Canada and the United Slates is likely to be wide enough in its inlluenee to afleet New Zealand. The cabled items, however, have not been of much help in forming a clear opinion on the matter, how far will it all'eet u.s? Well, frankly, we cannot yet tell (say.s the Dominion). The Spectator remarks that the agreement "amounts to Free-trade in farm products." It is this -'Free-trade" which concerns New Zealand, and it is our dairying industry which is chiefly affected. For some years Canada has been Britain's .source of cheese supply, while New Zealand has also been making and exporting cheese to Britain in quantities adjusted according to the estimated condition of the cheese market. Many of our big dairy factories have been fitted with dual plants in order that either butter or cheese can be made, according to the requirements of the British market. In deciding the course to take in any season's manufacture, one of the most important tilings taken into consideration has been the probable output of Canada. In some years it has been the chief basis on which we have worked.

So the importance of the fact that another dairy produce outlet has been made available to Canada is obvious. But to what extent this country will benefit is not so clear, and, indeed, only a few years' experience could make it so. A few seasons of wild prosperity caused by a boom in its clieese industry is, of course, improbable. Our exports of cheese for the 1909-10 season amounted to 1(i,6G7 tons, valued at £1,000,000. It is difficult to ascertain yet what Canada exported during her last season, but about 60,000 tons had been made up to October 1. Between then and December there would be additions to tile total, and a careful scrutiny of newspapers from* abroad leads to an estimate of 70,000 tons as Canada's output. That is more than four times as much cheese as New Zealand exports. How much of Canada's spare 70,000 tons will the United States take? It can be reasonably reckoned that America will demand a good deal of it. But, again, we cannot tell how much. The people of the United States would have been good customers long ago had the high tariff not been in existence. Americans will probably be prepared to pay the same.price, or thereabouts, for Canadian cheese, as British consumers have been paying, and an enviable result is plain enough—portion of what is going to Britain will go to the States. There will then be a shortage of cheese on the London and other Home markets—a temporary shortage, to be by-and-bye adjusted bv the inexorable operation of the law of supply and demand. But that operation would be slow, and, meanwhile, the Dominion would have its chance.

An effect of a shortage would be to increase Canada's cheese make, and Canada is a country so vast that the room for expansion is enormous. Then there is Australia to be reckoned with. If a shortage of cheese sent up the price of the commodity in Britain, some of Australia's many million acres of semi-de-veloped land would be brought into line, and by such means the deficiency will be brought about. Xew Zealand, however, could very quickly make a large increase in her cheese output, by many of the concerns which now manufacture butter turning over to cheese. That, by the way, might assist in maintaining the price of butter. Dairy factory directors and others who contemplate a'nv readjustment of their businesses in consequence of the agreement between the two countries ought to bear this in mind; it is a most unlikely tiling that cheese will reach an abnormal price on the British market. The reason is that when the retail price gets much above what the customers are in the habit of paying, or when it rises over what they can afford, they will leave it alone. It is one of those things that can be done without great hardship. A -very clear indication that the people of the United States want Canada's dairy produce was given some time back, when the tariff was revised. The revised tariff had an effect, as applied to butter and cream, which was not intended by the legislators who framed it. The tariff on butter lad been prohibitive, but the revised tariff admitted cream at a rate which was not prohibitive. The openin" was soon discovered, and Canadian fac° toiies within a reasonable distance of the border sent their cream into the •States, and on the American side of the line the cream was manufactured into butter.

A point which docs not niueli concern New Zealand, but which is interesting, is that the admission to America of Canada's cheese would be sure to have a damaging effect on the lines which have lip to the present time been substituting it. °

NEWS AND NOTES. Xew uses for electricity are being continually suggested. One'of the latest is the idea that it can be profitably employed for the purpose of curing bacon. Caterpillars are reported to be doing a large amount of damage in many di.s" tricts of the Ashlmrtoii county, and farmers state that the sparrows are useless in coping with the scourge. It is surprising how soon, under a system of kind management, the animal which has been aceustomed to go where he pleased and do as he thought fit may be taught to yield up his will to another, and to obey with alacrity his master's bidding. Pigs must have liberty. Let the little pigs have a chance to get out of the pen and caper and run around when they are only a few days old. Unless this is done, and they are kept shut up in a small pen, they are apt to get too fat and die.

Breeding pigs for size is not goiii" to do much to make big pork, unless you rood for size at the same tiiw\

_ Cleanliness for the sow and little i t i<r S is absolutely necessary if one expects to raise properly. More pigs die from being obliged to live in and around a dirty pen than every other disease imaginable Making a stereotyped model for breeding to impossible, but no man lives who studies his breed who has not an ideal sheep before him. Inasmuch as the quality of milk is regelated by the individual cow rather than by the feed fed, the dairyman must Jook to each animal if he is desirous of producing milk of a. high quality. The London correspondent of'the Pastoralists' Review states that a meat salesman remarked to him: "It has been quite a pleasure this year to sell frozen meat; everything has worked so smoothly. As it arrived meat was marketed—no accumulations in .store," The same gentleman continued: "Butchers are buying cheap beef as much as possible in place of dear mutton, and dearer lamb Canterbury lamb off the hooks is 4s per stone. Australian meat' is expected here in December in large quantities. The deity in the shipments has allowed the season to close here grandly. The price of Australian lamb, 1o arrive next week, is 3s (3d per stone. Prospects for New Zealand meat at Smithfield next year are as they were at the beginning of this year-favorable, a clean sheet, (is regards stocks. At the beeinmng of WOO the market was full of stale New Zealand lambs,"