The feasibility of this must depend in a great measure on what is the average yield of milk per cow under such conditions of food, climate, etc., as obtain in Hong Kong and neighbourhood, on the cost of keep and herding, and on the liability to disease in the herd. On some of these points here is the testimony of a local amateur cow-keeper. This gentleman writes:-" We have been exceptionally lucky in our cow and also in our cow-boy; nobody else's experience has been quite as favourable, I think, so when I tell you we get eleven quarts per day all the year round, at a cost of $14 per month (includ. ing wages), you must hardly expect to do so well if you think of setting up a dairy of your own. My old beast is said to be the best milch cow in the Colony- she came from Australia and cost $125, which she has paid me back many times over, particularly if I count the children's good looks as an asset." Others have been equally as fortunate in their experience, while some again have not been quite so lucky.
In Amoy, which as regards climate and other circumstances affecting the cost of cow-keeping and the yield of milk resembles Hong Kong, a herd of fifty Australian and English cows supplies the foreign community with excellent milk at nine or ten cents. a bottle. What is accomplished there ought to be quite possible here. In reply to enquiries about the Amoy Farm, the following information has been very courteously supplied. "We have one cow in our dairy which has given (but not now) as much as twenty-two bottles per day: but taking our cows at an average I think about twelve, thirteen or fourteen bottles a day would be a moderate calculation. When a cow is being dried off before calving it gets less and less every day, but taking a general average of an English or Australian animal, a yield of about 600 gallons per annum ought to satisfy its owner. The keeping of buffaloes, or native animals, is deprecated as being troublesome and unprofitable. The daily allowance for each animal is:-
With this as a basis of calculation, it is proposed to start a Dairy of 100 head of cows on a capital of $25,000 and if this proves a success, gradually to increase the herd so as to meet the requirements of the Colony.
It will be necessary to obtain a site for stables in such a situation that, while convenient to the centre of population, it will be well removed from the risk of having disease imported from the town cows, and have a good water supply and opportunity for grazing. Such a site might be found on some of the neighbouring islands or on Hong Kong itself; and doubtless for such a purpose the government will grant every facility. It will be necessary also to procure a practical and experienced man, preferably a married man, as Manager on the Farm, and a Secretary and clerk to look after the general business of the Company.
CAPITAL
$25,000
++
Cost of 100 cows at $100 each Buildings
$10,000
5,000
One year's salary of manager, clerk, etc. Balance
3,000
7,000
$25,000
Yield of 100 cows at six large bottles per diem
219,000 bottles @ ten cents $21.900.
EXPENSES
Keep etc. of 100 cows @ $10 per month per head Salaries
$12,000
3,000
$15,000
$6,900
Balance
50 catties grass
40
10
gram and straw
sweet potatoes
Crushed beans mixed with boiling water and salt twice a day as a drink. One coolie attends to five cows, curry-combs them, and brushes them down, grooming them as any well-kept horse. In the Amoy herd of Australian cows, only one death has occurred in five or six years."
From this we may gather that a cow in Hong Kong ought to yield anywhere from five to eleven quarts of milk per diem at a cost of food and attendance of about $14 per month. Assuming that six quarts is an average yield and that the cost of keep, etc., when undertaken on a large scale, will be about $10 per month per cow, the cost of production of one large bottle of milk is about 5 cents.
The balance $6,900 might be distributed as a dividend of 10% ($2,500) and leave a balance of $4,400 to replace deaths in the herd and build up a reserve fund.
The calculations are based on figures purposely unfavourable; but if we assume that the experience of cow-keeping in Amoy can be reproduced in Hong Kong, that the yield of milk per cow will average 600 gallons or 3.000 bottles per annum, then the yield of 100 cows would be 300,000 bottles, bringing $30.000-just double the estimated cost of up-keep and a handsome return on the investment of $25,000, besides being abundant margin for deaths, reserve fund, increase of stock and dividend.
Gentlemen desirous of forwarding the above scheme are requested to subscribe their names. If sufficient encouragement is received, a meeting will be called to discuss the matter, and, if desired, to take steps for the formation of a Company.
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