DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1922, Page 4

DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

DEVELOPMENT IN TARANAKI PROSPEROUS LOOKING COUNTRY HAPPY AND SMILING FACES. The productivity of Taranaki has impressed the Minister for Labor (the Hon. G. J. Anderson), who opened the n inter Show at New Plymouth yesterday. In the course of his remarks the Minister said that in coming to • Taranaki he saw prosperous-looking ) country and happy, smiling faces, and i he was glad that he had come to the I gunny north. The president had referred to the cow as the gold-mine of ln this connection he had ' heard certain disgruntled motorists j when held up by cows on Taranaki ■ roads—and very fine roads they were —had used language which was un- | printable. He thought rather they should have taken their hats off to thq cow. (Laughter). Taranaki, he said, was the home of [dairying. They should thauk God for i the productivity of their country—north, south, east and west the coun- - try was prolific in some form of prim(ary industry. In the North Island it i was principally dairying; in the South | wheat, oats, dairying and the finest i wool that was produced anywhere. On I looking into figures connected with th© | production of Taranaki, Mr. Anderson confessed that he had been com--1 pletely taken by surprise, and he was impressed with the progress that had I been made since Taranaki was principally taken up by bush and Maoris. The farmers used to sell fungus and a little home-made butter, until now there was an enormous output. The establishment of boys* and girls’ dubs would make that output still larger. The greater the cultivation the larger would the returns be. It was almost incredible that 154 tons of mangolds could be grown on an acre. He believed the average in Taranaki was 40 tons per acre; he hoped they would be able to double this to 80 tons per acre. In the south very few cows came in in full condition as in Taranaki. One thing the Agricultural Department waa doing was to send out instructors to help those fartners who might be apt to get careless with their milk, which was very sensitive and absorbed all sorts of impurities from the air. Twenty of these instructors had been sent out to show farmers how to preserve their milk and take it to the factory in a pure condition. To-day only the best was needed, and he was satisfied these men were doing very good work. When it was considered that of the total number of cattle in the Dominion, Taranaki had 17 per cent., it showed what wonderful progress was being made here. Again, I'6 per cent, of the farmers in New Zealand lived in Taranaki, 16 per cent, of the Dominion’s output of butter, and 38 per cent, of cheese came from Taranaki. In ten years the butter output had increased by S 3 per cent, and cheese by 118 per cent. The Agricultural Department waa spending a lot of money in developing the primary industries, ‘but it was necessary expenditure, and the cost waa well justified, for the country was dependent to a very great extent on its primary industries, which constituted 84 per cent, of the total exports, or £36,838,000 out of £43,802,000. The rule-of-thumb methods had to be reversed by farmers, and more attention paid to scientific farming in order to get the best results. In the boys’ and girls’ club competitions 110 tons of mangolds per acre had been produced in North Taranaki and 154 tons in South Taranaki. Was not this a magnificent proof of the value of scientific farming? Money expended in experimental work was not wasted. Even if the dairying output was only bettered by 5 per cent., scientific experimental work waa justified.