The Bush Published Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday. SATURDAY, SEPT. 1,1888.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 51, 1 September 1888, Page 2

The Bush Published Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday. SATURDAY, SEPT. 1, 1888.

The growing attention which 'tile' dairy industry is receiving in this colony is one oi the mo*t hopeful signs of the times. Eminently suited by nature as New Zealand is for the industry, it is only now becoming recognised . by' the colonists that there is money to.be made in the business if pursued under proper conditions. The Government is alive to the of the question, and some time ago instructed the Agent-General to make exhaustive inquiries into the various methods adopted in the dairying countries in Europe. Sir Francis Bell has .therefore thoroughly examined into the condition of the dairy farming industry in France, Scandinavia, Holland, and Italy, and has embodied the results of his enquiries into a series of elaborate and useful reports, the first of which has been laid before Parliament. It contains some interesting reading. The enquiries made by the Agent-General amongst experts disclose some very interesting facts concerning the dairyfarming industry in Great Britain. The extent of the trade in dairy products is much greater than is commonly believed. In the five years between Jan. 1, 1883, and Dec. 31, 1887, nearly 621,200 tons of butter and 456,200 tons of cheese, of the aggregate value of more than £80,000,000 sterling, have been imported into the United Kingdom. Last year the import, was 139,40.0 tons of butter, of the value of £11,887,000, and. 91,700 tons of cheese, of the value of £4,500,000. The average for the five years was more than 124., 000 tons of butter and butterine, and 91,000 of cheese, j mating together an import of upwards of 215,000 tons, of the aggregate average value of £16, 230; 000 per annum. For the last three years, 1885 to 1887, the .greater part of the imported butter has come' from Denmark and France. In 1887, out of a total import of 1,515,000cwt., 903,000cwt. were from those two countries, while Germany and Holland sent 321,000 cwt., and. Canada 32,000cwt. of butterine. The largest quantity coaies from Holland, 1,170, 0000wt., out of 1,273,000, being imported from that country in 1887. The largest import of cheese is from Canada and the United States, 1,391,000cwt. coming in 1887, out of a total of 1,834,000cwt. Canada, during the same year, sent us 631,000cwt., and Holland 362,000 ■cwt. Europe, it appears, produces 651,000 tons of butter annually, and consumes 681,000 tons. The United States and Canada produce 404,000 tons, and oonsume 374,000 tons, leaving 30,000 tons for export. The production of butter in the United Kingdom is only 90,000 tons, while the consumption exceeds 205,000 tons, so that each year raoie than 115,000 tons had to be imported. In 186P, only 840,000cwt. of butter was imported, and ,983,0000wt. of cheese, or less than a third of what was imported in 1887. England is now by far the largest consumer of butter in Europe, and for all practical proposes, so far as supply from New Zealand is concerned, the market may be considered unlimited. The Normandy. Butter is most in fashion at present in England, owing to a number of causes that combined to give it peculiar excellence. The climate on thai part of the coast is mild, and it is benefited, like England and Ireland, by the Gulf Stream, and its soft jviuds and moisture. Normandy butter is made for the most part at the farms, with an unrivalled exactness and minuteness of attention to every details, added to a remarkably good quantity of milk. The Danish system and improvements are seldom seen on Normandy and Brittany farms ; cheap laboui with incessant carefulness and patient work by the dairymaids, and peasants combine to produce results which at present cannot be matched in Great Britain, The secret of this success is that a buttei of exactly the same colour, flavour, and texture is turned out in great quantities, and can be depended upon for constant uniformity all the year round. .Opinions differ as to its superiority to English and Irisb. butters, many experts holding it to be intrinsically inferior. But it it to a great extent mixed up bji

powerful bufter workers at the large . factories, and blended into the uniform character constituting its great feature. A single house in London pays to a single .Normandy factory, more than £30,000 a month. Professor Long sums up the advantages of Normandy as avdairy country in the words "The system in Normandy is not only simple, but perfect." It is said that Normandy butter does .not possess what is called the "nutty flavour " of the best home-made kinds, but the London market does not care for that. Tho one thing it wants is always to get the same flavour, colour, and texture, and" that is the great point in the Normandy butter; The great success of the dairy industry in Denmark is attributed by experts to the excellence of the technical education given in the country, and to the way in which it is carried to the farmers' doors. Five years ago the export of Danish butter amounted to between 80,000 and 90; 000 barrels. This has now nearly doubled, while the expoit of cheese has trebled, having grown from 200,0001bt0 600,0001 b; and the increase is said to be due to the 00-operative system of dairying and the spread of technical teaching. Denmark is permeated with agricultural and dairy farming schools ; and its superiority as the model State in dairy farming has been achieved by the constant cooperation of scienoe and practice. The butter manufacture in Denmark is chiefly done on the "creameries system," large creameries having been established, to which farmers sell all their cream. In Sweden there are many Government travelling teachers, If a dairymaid wants to improve herself, the travelling teacher goes to the farm and tells her what to do, and shows the farmer how to produce the richest milk. The instruction in the Swedish Dairy Colleges includes the methods of farming, varieties of pasture, dairy management, and the characteristics of good butter and cheese. Practical work is done in weighing and cooling milk, setting cream, separating milk, and testing, and the Government pays a number of. girls to learn how to turn out i their produce in the best way. The result has been that Swedish trade in butter has grown from a large excess of import over export into an excess of export over import of more than eight million kilogrammes. In cheese, however, there is still an excess of import over export of, nearly half a million kilogrammes.