FARM AND GARDEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1921, Page 12

FARM AND GARDEN.

DAIRY :.hvalrY. A MANAWATU SIDELIGHT. The Manawatu correspondent of the Farmers’ Union Advocate takes hie readers behind the scenes of the dairy industry. “At present, in the district between Palmerston and Wanganui, there is great rivalry ae to which company shall get the milk or cream,” he writes. “Two proprietary companies come out a long way to pick up what they can, or have it sent in by rail. About five cooperative companies (save the mark!) are touting and competing against each other, showing in some cases tactics which are not. ’according Hoyle.’ Was there ever such a travesty as that? Cooperative! The word is prostituted, and covers a multitude of sins. In this district several companies which have a dual plant have been fairly hard hit. At the beginning of the season everything pointed to cheese being the best proposition, and cheese was made where milk could be easily delivered, and butter where cream was more convenient to deliver. Alas! the ‘best laid schemes o’ mice e.nd men gang aft agley/ and in this case butter paid best. One company’s raeeti g, after discussing the bal-ance-sheet for many hours, adjourned to renew the attack another day. Up the coast, one company started their meeting in the morning, and only finished after 11 o’clock at night, the chairman and directors getting roasted all the time. Although in this case they paid out 2s 2id, the fact that they had to change over to make all butter in the middle of the season""Thereased the cost of making considerably, and thus, although the price received equalled 2s 6d. less expenses and storage, whilS butter factories paid out 2s Bd. this factory could only pay the above price. It is a curious commentary on the times when men complain about getting 2s for what a year or two ago they thought they were well paid when they got Is. Still, such is human nature! The milk and cream wagons travel often 50 miles [a day, passing and repassing each other on the road, gathering cream especially wherever they can. Of course, rhe farmer pays for it. He may not kno t how. and" he thinks he has done a clever stroke by gettng Id a pound more than his neighbor. Unless such competition is stopped, co-operation is doomed. Mr. Brown, up the coast, said at the meeting of their dairy company that ‘twenty-five years ago co-operation had a great fight, against commercial dairy farms, and it looked like as if the fight would come on again.’ It is .mid that a proprietary firm in Wanganui has done so well that it is proposed to in New Plymouth, and work in the very heart of the dairying district. This movement has been given impetus, as I said, by the changed conditions re butter and cheese. Circulars are being sent to all co-operative suppliers offering high prices for their i butter-fat, and many are falling in; while co-operative companies arc fighting the proprietary firms arc reaping the benefit. So it goes on.” VESTEY BROTHERS. A HUGE CONCERN. LONDON .JOURNAL DETAILS RAMIFICATIONS.

The London meat journal, Cold Storage, has the following article, dealing with the ramifications of V'estey Bros., who are now operating largely in New Zealand: “The Birthday honors of last month recognised the importance of the food importing and storage business by way of a baronetcy conferred upon Mr. Edmund Hoyle Vestoy. It was .in the Birthday honors of 1913 that his brother William took similar rank, and to-day this duumvirate stands as. indeed, a most remarkable instance of overseas food enterprise. For nut only arc the Messrs. Vestey the principal pi’oprietm’s of the Union (.’old Storage Company, which, with its many depots, has now 18,000 shareholders, and a capital of six millions sterling, but. their ramifications in the frozen meat and produce trade are unequalled. OVER 30.000 SQUARE MILES. “They are stock and station owners in South America and Australasia, owning altogether 30,000 square miles of country a"d half a million head of cattle, one of their ranches being longer than from London to Glasgow. Their refrigerated ships of the Blue Star Liue have an aggregate tonnage of over five and a half millions, and their stores and freezing works are to be found in all five continents, to say nothing'’ of their retail butchers’ shops, which number nearly two thousand. In their various companies Messrs. Vestey control considerably over 30,000 millions sterling of capital so that as far as commercial competition is concerned, they are the only parties who can face the American Meat Trust without fear. BATTLE WITH MEAT TRUST. “As a matter of fact, that commercial struggle is thought to be particularly severe during the present season, when the Americans have been flooding the market with chilled meat, and Messrs. Vestey find themselves with a considerable quantity of their frozen purchases from the British Government. But Messrs. Vestey’s marketing resources are manifold, and the Big Five have their troubles. “Sir Edmund Vestey is a resident of Croydon, Surrey, while Sir William lives slightly nearer the metropolis, at the handy though still verdant suburb of Dulwich. It has often been said that Messrs. Vestey had American experience. As a matter of fact, they commenced their remarkable career fifteen years ago with their father, a Liverpool wholesale provision merchant, who, when they were eighteen years of age, sent them to the United States, where they remained for about ten years in the same business. Later, they returned Home, and began their extensive business as cold store proprietors.”

The dried milk factory at Te, Awamutu is to be open for work next month. The suggestion has been made that, a winter show be held in Auckland next year. “I was offered that land at 30s an acre,” said a member of the Rivers Commission in Paeroa, referring to same ifi Ue Plains district

I that was recently offered at £75 an j acre. | A Hawke’s Bay visitor to Palmer- • ston North last week told a Manawatu Times representative that the coun:try extending from Takapau to Napier i is parched and dry. and unless rain soon ■ falls the crops will be a failure and

i dairy farmers will suffer considerable losses.

In the course of a lecture to technical students at Masterton, Air. W. Perry, of the Council of Agriculture, said sheep-breeding was >iot easy. It was recognised now as more or less a scientific matter. The men who had established the various types of breeds were wen who had had a great knowledge of their work. The three main points about a sheep were constitution, breedtype, and quality of wool. But the quality of wool must not be held in too high regard, and the other points mentioned, be more neglected, in an effort to obtain a marketable wool. It was to educate one’s hand when feeling the textures of -wool, for the purpose of detecting harshness. New Zealand had been somewhat behind in the past in regard to proper methods of instruction, but he hoped that this reproach Would be removed in time. We could not get away from the fact that our prosperity as a nation depended on the M)iL About. 60 per cent, of cow’s food is necessary to sustain its body, and only the remaining 40 per cent, is available for giving a return to the feeder. As the capacious cow is a ravenous eater, the dainty and small feeder should be avoided. Hence a large mouth and strong jaws are desirable. Because the cow chews the cud she requires a large storage capacity, indicated by a good barrel, which should he long, broad and deep, ensured by length of body, the wellsprung rib, and the wide loins and hips. The soft and pliable skin denotes efficient digestion.

Dairy farming in the Pahiftttia and Forty-Mile Bush districts has bc,en giving the farmers anxiety during the last two weeks owing to the shortage of grass, which has been kept back owing to dry weather. The cows are coming in about two weeks later than last year, and it is well that it is so, for what are being milked are. generally speaking, in a very poor condition. They can grow big pumpkins over in the Gisborne district. A farmer, who is feeding his stock on pumpkins is the envy of the district for the big prolific crop lie has grown. Some of the -samples of ironbark pumpkins from his farm exhibited in Gisborne turned the scales at 114.111). The majority of the crop, it is said, run from SOlb to 1001 b. The crop was a mixed one, with a preponderance, ol llie ironbark variety. A striking illustration of the variance of the financial aspects of both sheep and dairy farming at the present rate of prices was presented by a Patea farmer the other day (says the Press). He stated that a lady milking 6 cows was sending cream to a dairy company and getting a return of approximately £l2O. A neighbor shearing 1300 wethers sold his wool and received in payment the sum of £7O. Another case comes from the Waverley district whore a farmer sold 16 bales of wool and the proceeds were not sufficient io pay his County rates. By the former illustration it will be seen that a farmer milking 3 cows will be nearly as well off as a man shearing 1300 sheep.