OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 281, 20 April 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES

RURAL MEW ZEALAND UNDER < REVIEW No. «. [All Rights Reserved.] (By R. J. EAMES). WELLINGTON: A PROVINCE PROGRESSIVE. NEED FOR INFORMATION. In a quest for information which may prove helpful to those engaged in pas- ! toral pursuits in other parts of New ( Zealand, the enquirer is embarrassed on every hand by the lack of reliable data. ; There arc opinions—merely opinions—in j plenty. The same amount of public interest is not taken in the problems of ; sheep and cattle-raising, or in the growth j of crops, as attaches itself to the dairying industry, for the simple reason t that the Government concerns itself more extensively with this branch of our rural activity than with any other, and [ the publicity given annually to the work- : ing details of the various factories, coupled with the almost daily discussions inseparable from industrial co-operation, naturally attract public attention. But the principle of co-operation will require to be greatly broadened yet, by the institution of systematised comparisons, if the mutual benefits are to be increased. Take sucha process as the pasteurisation of butter, for instance. If that treatment improve the quality ds greatly as its advocates aflirm, the fullest particulars of its effect upon grading and prices ought to be available .to factories throughout New Zealand. As a general rule, the average value of New Zealand produce will, after all, be determined by the average quality, and there should be one standard quality for the New Zealand article —the best! If any general disrepute were imposed upon the produce of this Dominion through the despatch to Britain of poor-quality stuff, factories could not hope to escape all the penalties of that general disrepute simply because they individually pasteurised their butter. And so with other advanced methods by which the quality of any product might be improved. Again, what strikes one forcibly in examining the balance-sheets of co-opera-tive concerns is the difference in methods of accountancy, or, at 11113' ra t e > °f P re " \ senting the information. And, further than this, it is surprising how small the amount of aata really is. Here are some things about which the book-keeping system of every factory ought to concern itself: (1) How many cows is each supplier milking? (2) How many lbs of fat docs he average per cow? (3) How many acres does he graze for dairying! (4) Which breed gives the best result! If the dairy farmer tested his cows individually—and the dairyman who does not do that, after the tliousand-and-one instances of error which have been detected, is neglecting a most essential part of his business —it would be easy to answer question (4). It is, of course, manifest that farmers who use milking machinery arc confronted with a difficulty, and that it is impossible for those employing the no-bucket machine to ascertain the individual value of each cow. The answers to the other queries would show how very much grazing country there is in dairying areas which is not ' worked to its fullest capacity, and would prove conclusively that although most dairymen arc doing well at present a great many of them might be doing very much better than they arc. This is not merely the opinion of the writer: it is the essence of the views of a large number of men who are intelligently engaged in the dairying industry. FIFTY POUNDS AN ACRE.

Southwards from Feilding, towards I and past Palmerston, one gets into country which is more expensive than that on the north side of Feilding. Between the Manawatu and Oroua rivers there are the fine Kairanga fiats, and so far as the writer could gather there is no land anywhere within three miles of Palmerston North, in the locality indicated, for less than £SO an acre. Patches of the best land under cows, in practically every dairy centre in the North Island, has touched or is touching that figure, and some of it, in especially favored places, is already commanding half as much again. And there is a general belief, notwithstanding the warnings from financial institutions which have been referred to in earlier articles, that the limit has not been reached by a long way. In conversation with a bank manager the other day the writer remarked that so far as he could judge, and with dairying conditions as they are at present, the men who have paid or are paying £SO an acre are having a very strenuous time, and that if all things were taken into account (not forgetting to credit the working members of the family with an amount approximating to the sum that ''foreign" labor would cost) the milk cheque would not look at all imposing. Said the banker: "My opinion is, that where the land is really good, well adapted for dairying, and suitably situated so far as the factory and school are concerned, buyers of to-day at the price you mention will in the course of a few years exclaim with satisfaction: 'Yes, and I got it at £SO an acre!"' The worth of that opinion remains to be proved, but for the present it would be of inestimable public value if fanners who are operating on a £-50 basis were to write to the editor of this paper showing exactly how much can be made out of dairying after paying £SO an acre for, say, a one-hundred-acre farm, actually carry '.;tg, as some farmers aflirm, a cow to the acre all the year round. The system of farming adopted to- enable that cow to be carried ought also to be explained. THE HILLY EAST COAST. The nature of the country along the east coast of the Wellington province commits it naturally to sheep and dry cattle. .Some of the individual Hocks (in Which the Romney again predominates) are of -23,000, sheep. Here and there settlement is denser, but as a whole it is a country of big settlement; it strongly resembles the Province Conservative. It is capable of carrying a very much larger population and a much greater quantity of Btock than occupy it to-day. A lot of the land is in native grass, and the clearing, passive cultivation and sowing is adding every day to its pastoral productiveness, ft is'ratlier difficult to get a reliable estimate of the carrying capacity, but au old settler, who knows the country well, put it down at a sheep to tile acre, with a heavy beast, to every 15 acres. And so with the price. There is not much selling, and when changes do take place they are more frequently between established families than with newcomers. But by my same informant the selling value was put down at £4 10s per acre. X'ublish April 27. . , ~t