Rosewood History

From the Queensland Country Life (Qld.), Friday 1 April 1904, page 9

THE ROSEWOOD.

Kirchheim is situate five miles from Walloon, on the main southern railway line. The area of the district is small, but it is closely settled, perhaps no place more so in West Moreton. The dairymen are of Teutonic descent, men of broad features, slow in movement, stolid, persevering, and you get the impression when passing through the district that, you have fallen on a slice of Germany, tumbled down under the Southern Cross. Early morning at Kirchheim appeals to the imagination as the counterpart of rural life on the Rhine. Dairying here has brought about a transformation. The social condition of the people before and now are the dark and bright shades of the same picture. There is not a poor family among them, and before the change in the industries the storekeeper and the butcher were kings. Now the dairy farmer occupies the throne. They may not be wealthy, but the signs which are everywhere seen are those of prosperity. 

Here is situate Linning’s butter factory. This factory to Kirchheim is what the Nile is to Egypt. The proprietor is a man who has travelled much- in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark-and has translated every new idea in the art of butter-making into fact at Kirchheim. He is a man of keen observation, and with a practical turn of mind. The factory is compact, well-appointed, and up-to-date. Mr. Linning does his separating and churning under one roof, and thus reduces the cost of handling to the minimum. A good article is always manufactured and finds ready sale. The output averages 13,440 pounds of butter per week, which gives a, total of 312 tons every year. This is not a large output, but for the small area of Kirchheim few places in West Moreton can beat. Put this into hard cash, and distribute the money among the farmers, and you place your hand on the prosperity of Kirchheim.

During this week business took me to Glanmorgan, Kirchheim, Rosewood, and other farming centres, and during the hurried visit there passed me one German waggon loaded with maize. Five years ago you would meet on these roads strings of waggons laden with produce, and all making for railway stations to send the fruits of the toil of the season to Ipswich and Brisbane. Now, little or none is being sent, but more fodder is being grown than ever, but finds consumption in the dairy or on the farm. The industries of West Moreton are in a transition state, and dairying is fast superseding every other form of enterprise, and in the near future will be the supreme employment in this portion of the State.

Trelawney, as a dairying centre, may be considered the busiest place in West Moreton. Everything is on a large scale, and in many respects it is a model dairy farm. The proprietor, Mr. Charles Sealy, is well abreast of everything modern in dairying, not only in mechanical appliances, but in the strain of his herd, the conservation of fodder, and his mode of the cultivation of the land. The farm consists of 1280 acres, and has a frontage of five miles to Warrill Creek. It is situate less than a mile from the Harrisville Railway Station on the Dugandan line.

The herd numbers 350 cattle, and the number now under milk is.slightly over 200. The strain is Jersey, crossed either with the shorthorn or Devon.

There are laid down at Trelawney 100 acres under lucerne, and of hay conserved for winter fodder the estimated quantity is 500 tons. This, too, in addition to ensilage, that fodder being largely in use at Trelawney.

Cheese making and milk condensing are conducted on somewhat large lines, the output in milk being 30 cases per day. The farm finds employment yearly for a good number of hands.

The machinery is of the most recent make, and consists of a 40 h.p. boiler, copper vacuum pans, boilers and receivers, and also a complete tin making plant, besides machinery for filling, labelling, and soldering. Milk from Trelawney analysed at the Government laboratory in August of last year gave 36 per cent of butter-fat.

The industry is handicapped not only by cheap Continental labour, but, by the federal tariff. The patriots who framed that tariff reduced the duty from 2d. to 1d. per lb., and this, in view of the fact that boxes cost 50 per cent less on the Continent than in the Commonwealth, that sugar can be purchased for £9 per ton as against a higher price among us, and also that labour is cheaper and more reliable. Under existing conditions the Commonwealth draws the bulk of its condensed milk supply from foreign countries.

During the last few weeks a milking plant has been erected at Trelawney, and the Laurence-Kennedy machines installed. Their capacity is the milking of 12 cows at the same time, or say, a capacity of 150 per hour. Of the machines it is too early to pronounce definitely, but certainly they appeared to be working smoothly.

Trelawney, as a dairy farm, reflects the highest credit upon the proprietor, Mr. Sealy, and were the industry there carried or fostered as it should be by the Federal Government, we should be able, in a little time, to supply the wants of the Commonwealth.