The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1833. THE GERALDINE FACTORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1110, 19 June 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1833. THE GERALDINE FACTORY.

The Geraldine people are at last on the right road to establish in their midst a very important industry. Compared with Temuka they hare'-started very auspiciously. The Temuka factory was started under very unfavorable circumstances. The first meeting was held on a Saturday evening in the Volunteer Hall, and there were very few present, and two-thirds of those had been bask ing in the rays of a very warm sun during the previous day. In fact there was never seen so many sunburnt people in Temuka before. One gentleman had a bottle labelled “ cognac” in which many took a deep intT’st, while its owner amused them with some kind of noise resembling singing. Another member thought he saw something green in the eye of a member of the Press, and took a great fancy tor altering its color, for which purpose he divested himself of sundry articles of clothing. He afterwards explained he only wanted to frighten the men of ink and paper. This was the first meeting of the Temuka Bu( ter, Cheese and Bacon Curing Factory, but ii* spite of all this the indomitable energy of Mr Sando asserted itself, and success resulted from it. Another wav in which the Geraldine project is starting under more f favorable circumstances is that the townspeople are its warmest supporters. Only Messrs K. F. Gray, J. M. Twomey, and Dr Hayes took any interest in the Temuka Factory. All the storekeepers either ignored or opposed it. In Geraldine the townspeople are a lively interest- iri. it. One gentleman present expressed surprise at a watchmaker and an editor of a paper being the leading spirits in the movement. There is nothing to be surprised at in this. Mercantile men and townspeople lead the farmers in every movement of the kind. Temuka is the only place we know where the tradespeople render no assistance to advance such things, and only that the farmers are fairly enterprising nothing would be done. We are glad to see that in Geraldine the case is different ; and that the business people are taking so deep an interest in it that some of them Lave taken up as many as 20 shares each. It can be seen therefore that the Geraldine project is starting under favorable auspices, but this should not deter its promoters from throwing all the energy they can muster into it. It is not an easy matter to sell 1000 shares of £5 each, and unless they can do that quickly they cannot start season. Bearing this in mind tltey ought to secure at once the services ot an energetic canvasser to push thAkales of the, shares. To be must start four months hence, sp’tlmre is no time to lose. " 7^, And now some on information given to' the meeting. i Can £2O to £3O be got from the sale of milk from a farm of 50 acres ? is a question worth answering. Anyone can answer it easily. Twenty cows is uqt too much for 50 acres of land;. If each of these cows gives three gallons of milk per day at 4d per gallon it is equivalent to 30s per month for there are 30 days in a mouth. Multiply the 30s per cow by the number of cows, i.e., 20, and if the answer will not be £3O we will pay the difference. £3O a month for say seven months in the year allowing the cows to be dry tile J other five-months would give the 50 acre farmer a return of *2lO. We should like to know how the man who would rather “ throw milk on his dung heap than sell it for 4d per gallon” could make so much of 50 acres. If he put sheep on it will they give such a result ? we can answer that question also. Four, sheep will eat as much grass as a ccw, and at that rate only 80 sheep can be put on the same land as the 20 cows. Some of the best farmers in the district have assured us that 10s is as much as can be made from a sheep in the year, and ca'culating at that rate only £4O could be got fiom the 80 sheep. We have seen that £2lO was got from the cows, so there is the small sum of £l7O to their credit. A crop of 25 bushels to the acre at 3s fid per bushel would give £217 10s, but how many years in succession would he do that, and what would the expense of sowing, cutting, tin ashing, carting, etc, be? Is not the advantage on the side of the cow again? We should advise our anti-factory friend to reflect seriously b( fore he throws his milk on the dung heap rather than sell it at 4d per gallon. The next question is will it pay j shareholders? The milk is bought at 4d (

per gallon, and those wfiß fenbw anything about dairy factories unanimously agree that the pigs fed on whey will more than pay for manufacturing it into cheese. The cheese will in, that case cost the factory 4d per lb, for every gallon of milk will yield more than lib of cheese. If that cheese sold at lOd per lb as the Ashburton Factory’s cheese is expected to sell at the profit would be enormous. Any one can find out for himself what would be realised at that rate. It is estimated that 400 gallons of milk per day is necessary to keep a dairy going. That means 400 lbs of cheese per day, tor every gallon of milk yields a lb of cheese, and if there were sixpence per lb profit on it the net profit of the factory must be £lO per day. If 400 lbs of cheese were made daily in the factory from the first day of October to the last day of May, that is 243 days, and it were sold at a profit of Id per lb it would give £405. From this it can be seen that to sell the cheese at a profit of Id per lb will give the company 10 per cent interest on a capital of £4OOO, that is if the factory is worked properly. We trust the farmers of Geraldine will take the matter up. By having shares in the company they will get the full profit of their milk ; first in the price of it, and then n the dividend that will accrue on their shares. We think they have sufficient evidence now before them to show it is a profitable investment.