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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

Dairying, Grazing and Agriculture

Dairying, Grazing and Agriculture.

Taranaki is essentially a grazing and dairying district, its chief products being butter and cheese, of which, during the year 1896, there were 3,228 tons exported, valued at £276,443. There are forty-seven registered dairy-factories and thirty-three creameries scattered over the district, besides numerous smaller private ones of which we have no records. Of those registered, thirty-one produce butter only, ten page 30 combine butter and cheese, and six cheese only; forty of the factories and creameries are proprietary companies, while the other forty are run on co-operative lines: the total output of these, last season, to 31st August, being 1,786 tons butter and 1,124½ tons cheese. This return does not include unregistered producers on farms, &c. The enterprising owners of the Crown Dairy Company also propose during 1897 to establish a factory for the manufacture of condensed milk, the necessary plant for which has been ordered.

In September, 1896, a new work in correction with the dairying and meat industries was started in the shape of the Taranaki Freezing Works. They are situated at Moturoa, near the breakwater, and close alongside the railway-line. Substantial buildings have been erected, and a railway siding laid down. The machinery consists of a "Paxman" compound surface-condensing engine of forty indicated horse-power, driving a "Livide" compressor, capable of freezing 400 sheep per diem: although up to the present time the company has confined its attention wholly to the freezing of dairy produce, 59,264 packages of butter and 6,570 cases of cheese having been sent from the works to the Home market, besides 1,000 packages of butter for the local and Australian markets. During the hot season the factories and railway-vans carrying butter have been supplied with ice from the works at a nominal cost.

Another somewhat similar industry has just been commenced at Fitzroy, called the Taranaki Bacon Factory. Substantial buildings have been erected, and a 6-horse power "Livide" machine fitted up, and the owner, Mr. Drake, hopes to hare the works in full swing during the season of 1897. The pigs are purchased from the farmers in the district and delivered at the styes in connection with the factory, where they are topped off with corn-feeding for fourteen days before being slaughtered. An industry like this should prove a boon to all dairy-farmers, and should be vigorously supported by them.

There are in the Taranaki Provincial District 17,912 horses, 201,518 cattle, 402,258 sheep, and 17,672 swine. These figures include all kinds and ages.

Agriculture has not hitherto been carried on largely. The total area under grain-crops (for threshing) was 8.203 acres; under green and other crops (including those cut for chaff, green food, and ensilage, also root crops, gardens, and orchards), was 14,205 acres; area in sown grasses, 595,878 acres; total under all kinds of crops, 618,286 acres, 617 acres fallow land, and 1,397 acres of forest-tree plantations.

The average yield of different grain-crops in bushels per acre, as estimated for season of 1896-1897, is: Wheat, 30; oats, 33; barley, 32; rye, 23.