PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7941, 16 January 1906, Page 7

PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND.

IMPROVED METHODS URGED, 1 ; A writer in the December number of Dalgety's Review, after emphasising the faot that New Zealand is an ideal country for farming, •especially dairying, says:—>'"Tbe object, of all farming is profit, and the greater that is the better for all parties concerned, whether grower, agent, or buyer. What applies 10 wool also applies to dairy produce. It is not enough to breed good sheep and grow high-class long crossbred or merino wool if it is not properly •classed and prepared for market. In like manner it is not enough to have a herd of cowa on a dairy farm if they are not all yielders of a payable average quantity of milk giving a profitable butter fat test. That is the individual aspect of the •case; then there is the ool'ective Bide. If one man's wool cHd is badly sorted the loss only falls upon the individual owner, and, in like manner, if a dairy farmer keeps low yielding grade cows in his herd it is to his loss; but if his methods in handling the milk or cream are not sound the collective cream which is churned gives a butter or cheese of poor keeping quality; that means a ganeral loss. Considering that New -Zealand is pre-eminently a dairy produce manufacturing country for export, it behoves every dairy farmer to so per f eot his methods that nothing but a first-class article goes forward for grading at the various depots. As times goes on competition in the markets of the world becomes keener, and ouly those countries that maintain a very high standard oan bope to flnda profitable outlet for their produce. On the British market, to whence most of the New Zealand produce goes, the Gutter has to meet an exceedingly keen competitor in the Dane, and Danish methods are almost prefect. Not only are they keen in turning out a ohoice butter, bat they form '"testing associations," not for prizes, but for ascertaining the quantity and quality of the milk yielded by each oow of the members of the Associations.. This is as it should be, for it has resulted in a marked increase in the value of the milk returns. In the matter of handling the milk and the manufacture of the butter a similarly excellent system prevails; nor does the matter end there, for they market the product in a way that obtains nowhere elso in the world. The •system of fixing quotations could not exist if the butter were not forward in quantity in first-class ■condition, hence the grading and culling of the stock and tne perfect methods of manufacture. New is 42 days from London, and therefore not so favoured as Denmark; still there is no reason why she should be far behind in profitable methods of dairy farm ing.