THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 106, 5 May 1923, Page 20

THE LAND.

THE GOLDEN COW. MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. OLD METHODS AXD XEYV. (Tiy A. G. HEiGHWAY.) xn. iv. Tlie evolution ot Xew Zealand into a distinctively dairying country has involved a radical change in the methods of manufacturing butter. This change bus been orought about by various scienttfe improvements and better industrial equipment, whereby machinery does what man power did before. Until comparatively recently the manufacture of butter involved long hours and laborious detail, but to-duy 'that is displaced and butter is turned out more easily by the ton than formerly it was by the cwt.

In the days when dairying was a small sideline to general farming, milking was done much earlier tlmn is now the case, to permit of the regular day's work being done between S a.m. and 5 p.m. -This meant the creameries getting under way al a very early hour—trequontly befirre 4 o'clock. This was necessary to have the previous day's cream supply churned and in some degree worked before the farmers arrived with their milk supply shortly after 0 o'clock. To-day the milking machine on the farm and the recognition that dairying is his mainstay,and not his sideline, leads the farmer not to be quite so early a bird, with a consequent easing n( factory hours. Home separation and the more extensive circle from which supplies are drawn also have an effect upon factory hours. To make butter from fresh nnpasteurised l cream in the early days of the industry it was necessary to use a "starter" developed from buttermilk. The method of developing this is now almost a lost art, because with the greater volume of cream coming forward and certain changes in the process of manufacture, such ns pasteurisation, neutralisation of acids, etc., "starters"' are now rarely used.

MAKIXG "FOOL'S" BUTTER. The cream having been duly "ripened" with a starter it was churned in the common type of box churn—the principle being that the impact of the cream on Ihe walls of the churn would separate the globules of butterfat from the milk. After the butter has reached the size of peas in the granular form it was necessary to take it out of the churns and work it up by lrand on a rotary table. In this process salting was done and the surplus water worked out. This produced a very "dry" butter, with a usual moisture content of 9 or 10 per cent. This "dryness" was specifically encouraged by London merchants on the plea that such butter carried better and lasted better. This pica was, however, a rather specious one, because there is more than a suspicion that the primary object underlying it was to permio the incorporation of more water when blending was taking place at the other end. There is no doubt that the "dry" butter of 2Cew Zealand made the fortunes of some London dealers of those days. The producers eventually became alive to this little point, and this "dry" butter was given the nickname of "fool's butter. ;, Legislation fixing the legal limit of moisture at 16 per cent was adopted by the Home Country and the Dominions about 1905 but it was a good many years after that before New Zealand, thanks to the introduction of the combined churn and worker, began to work to anywhere near that moisture standard. A computation made by the writer upon the basis of the actual outputs of factories operating in the South .Auckland province through the years 1901 to 1910, shows that this dry butter involved them in a loss of £250,000 sterling over what might have been attained by an approximation to the legal standard. It has to be remembered, of course, that the method of manufacture forced the production of a comparatively dry butter, so that the whole of this sum uould not have been saved, but equally it is plain that the blenders at home profited very largely to this extent by the ' incorporation of the extra water. Multiplying their pickings by the output of the whole of New Zealand it can be seen that the title of "fool's butter" was very well earned. THE MODERN METHOD. Today there is nc possibility of any 6uch liberal picking* beii g secured. Tne manlifac*iire of butter is reduced to a vc-y exact scienua, and is subject ai every stage to chemical te.-ts to encure

accuracy in composition, evenness in texture and exactness in flavour. ' The South Auckland Province ii fortunate in possessing thy largest co-opera Mve butler factory in "he world, and a visit to it shows the pitch of perf.-ction attained in the manufacture of butter under modern scientific principles and in accordance with mass production. Incidentally it may be mentioned that til" largest butter factory in Canad'i has an output of approximately 500 tons a year, but Xew Zealand's leading factory has already made this season 2,500 tons of butter and will reach very nearly to ;i,UUO tons before the close of the dairyinc season. In one day she exceptional quantity of 20 tons 0 cwt of butter -vvas produced by this factory, and this recalls the story related in Tarauaki in the early days that when a certain factory's daily output reached to 6cwt of butter fears were expressed that the supply was being overdone and the market would be glutted!

The cream to feed this factory arrives in approximately 1000 cans daily, and some of it travels a maximum distance of over 40 miles. This quantity equals from 45 to 50 tons of cream. After being graded, weighed and sampled the (.•ream is tipped in huge vats according to grade and then pumped to the pasteurisers which raise it in two stages to a temperature exceeding 170 degrees F. The most modern form of pastueriser economises heat in a very ingenious fashion. The cream is heated as it passes up the interior and is cooled as it descends the outside, the one machine thus serving two objects. Cooling is completed on two coolers—a water cooler and a "direct-expansion" cooler, this last serving to reduce the temperature to about 40 degrees F. Pumped then into holding tanks of 1000 gallons capacity each the cream stands till next day, . ' a « n «> heat being extracted by water 3ackete surrounding the tanks %tl mart modern type%f storing tank Tm ploys a, new idea, ™~ that of a vacuum tank like a glorified thermos flash ThU tank I*.!?*** lined and yery excellent results indeed have been secured by the use of this equipment. ■ . * lne

massiyi; curnxs. The moat modern type ii rluirn ia a linjjp structure capable of taking from ■lh to .". tons i>f cream :ii a time, and converting it him irppwximatrly ">0 ewt of butter. With lour of thesis churns in nppration it is possible Ui turn out. :it one factory over £11)00 worth of blittiT with two' hours" work, Tlib actual manufactiirc of butter is Fupprviscd wit H especial care. The cream, before being pumped into the riiurna, is stitndardisod to a uniform acidity, so that tho results secured will nhvaye be the same. When manufacture is Hearing completion samples for moisture content arc drawn from different parts of the churn, because nowadays it does not pay to supply "fool's butter." A safe standard below the legal limit of lti per cent is adopted and worked 1o because. it is in small points like this that the producer's interests can best be guarded. How big this "little point' , is on the huge outputs of the present day luaj; bo gauged from tho fact that so small a fraction as .3 per cent of Xew Zealand's production of butter would this year mean a loss of 180 urns of butter, worth, say, £ISO a ton, or altogether nearly f;i3,000 sterling. This point is so important that it pays companies with large outputs to devote special attention to the saving of these fractions. Similarly many smaller companies make considerable unseen losses through neglect of this point. <'ases have been known even in recent years where export ■butter has tested only 13 per cent to 1-1 per cent, this representing a very definite loss to tho producer.

The packing of the butter is very efficiently carried out by automatic presses. Dug out of the huge churns with wooden spades, the golden butter is run along on wheeled trays to the packing department, where it is broken down into 501b blocks, accurately weighed oift and packed automatically- into the parchment-lined boxes awaiting it. Tho packing is important work, because the usual practice in Kngland is for the box to be broken away and the solid block of butter exposed on the dealer's tables, read}' for cutting into whatever weights nre required for retail sale. An even "pack" is therefore essential, and care is taken to avoid air-holes in every possible way.

VALUE OF FRACTIONS. The big out standing feature of any inquiry into tho manufacture of butter is the value of fractions. Care is necessary at every turn to avoid waste, to check the elusive disappearance of minute particles of butterfat in skim milk on the farm and in buttermilk in the factory. The chemist and his subtle little tests, his ever-searching inquiry for loss, is therefore an absolute necessity for the fullest success in tho dairying industry. lie is not only a very essential "policeman" upon quality, but also a very vital guard against loss. Losses begin actually on the farms themselves unless closely guarded against, principally in the form of separator losses. This loss in one recent case amounted to £4 a week suffered by the farmer. A simple test, of the separator milk and the speeding up of tho separator stopped this leak in profits. The same tiling applies on an immensely bigger scale in the factories. The steaming out of the milk cans and cream cans ofiVrs a very definite economy, one case being on record where the installation of a plant to deal with milk cans made a daily saving of 10/. At every stage in the modern elfieientlyrun factories there is a careful accounting of every particle of fat. It. is the fait that is the gold, and gold is precious. RURAL CREDITS.

AX AMKttICAN MOVEMENT. "Stirred into :i mess much as a housewife slings together a hasty pudding," is tlio way in which "Tile Wall Street Journal" describes the Capper-Lenroot-Anderson bill for providing credits for farmers in the United States. The bill is a compound of three separate bills 7Jroposed by the .Senators whose names it bears, hence the comparison to :i hasty pudding. Its main object ia to provide loans longer than the shorttime loan of the manufacturer and merchant, with their quick turnovers, and shorter than the long-time land mortgage. The farmer's turnover runs from six months, in the case of ordinary crops, to three years in t he case of livestock breeding," and the bill provides an agency, .through which he may borrow for purposes of production, with the understanding that the loan is not to be repaid until his produce is marketable. Twelve credit banks are to be created each with a capital of £1,000,000, and these banks are to be under the control of a Federal Farm Loan Board. The capital is to be provided by the Government, and provision is made for paying of!' this capital out of earnings. Much criticism lias been directed against the bill on the ground that if (he hanks are to be run on sound commercial lines they will not furnish the aid which the farmer is said to need, while if they give the necessary aid they will land themselves in bankruptcy. In any case, many financial authorities consider that it is unwise to plunge the fiovcrnineni into financial banking of the riskiest sort. During the last two years the Government, through the Federal Reserve Board and the War Finance Corporation, has advanced more than £200,----000,000 in credit (o fanners and different farm associations, and it looks very much as if the new banks would only add another mortgage to the already heavy load of <J'.'bt carried by American farmers. The seat of the farming trouble in the Stales is Europe's inability to buy and this can only be remedied by financial and diplomatic adjustments on an international scale. In addition, high freight rates and car shortages make it, difficult for farmers to move their crops to advantage. The farmer needs more marko's and better markets rather than more debts. Loan money will not help him here, for, as the New York "World" puts it, not a dollar of the loanable funds provided for in the bill ia calculated to increase the demand for as much as a bushel of wheat or a pound of pork. Already Jjnr.ks and credit agencies exist for the purpose of tidvnu.-iisa loans, and it claimed that tJovarnmont credit fj-uulu be \vstcl for securing better ra*thor°n fac f Uitics a "d better markets [bankirg ° r P ur l ,oses °* commercial

LUCERNE V. WHEAT. There comes from r-rngo and South Canterbury a remarkable tribute 1o the value of lucerne. It is claimed that the introduction of this crop has completely set aside the long sustained belief' that on a small farm a living could not be made 'in those districts except with the inclusion of wheat growing, and that it has become not only possible to secure a profitable return from sheep from a small acreage of lucerne, but that it is sound farm practice. It is found that on lands where this plant thrives that it is an unfailing resource for the flock on a small farm: it is fully shown that a well cultivated field of lucerne maintains more sheep throughout the year than any crop that is included in our present system of farming. A wheat grower expresse.-i himself that "wheat is associated with far too many attendant ties and risks, that sheep and lucerne oiler a much safer and more. attractive farming proposition than wheat growing. , ' In oilier words, the production of wool. mutton, and lamb is safer than that of wheat. Lucerne too, has a wider field than the substitution of the wheat field for the sheep fold: the dairy farmer may well consider this plant an asset, at 'all times, and an insurance against a diminished butter-fat cheque in dry seasons. If we may but accept the experience of countries where the small farm is the usual holding, we cannot fail to realise the fact that the cultivation of lucerne should receive a greater attention than is extended to it with us at present. It should be the reliance of the small holding wherever the soil is suitable; it is with the help of lucerne that the small flock and the small herd of dairy cattle are maintained under the best conditions and furnish the greatest profits. It is far from being suggested that every owner of sheep or dairy cattle should betake himself to cultivate lucerne: that would be folly. There are soils that are not suitablo for this crop, but it is well worth the trial, and it will bo the envied sheep and cattfe men upon whose farms, the plant that thrives is lucerne.

FARMERS' ACCOUNTS. The present moment is appropriate for referring to this subject, since it is about this lime that the farmer's year ends, a new year begins, and in mnny ways the moment is favourable for giving it careful consideration.

Those who have kept more or less detailed books should be thinking of any possible improvement in their system, and those who have not yet kept accounts will iind it an excellent time to start. larmers have all to gain by the introduction of some simple bookkeeping system; while there is very little indeed to be put against it on the other side. There are many difficulties we know; but the value of the information provided by a quite easy system cannot bo gainsaid, it will reveal the undertakings that are most profitable, and, what is equally important, on which branches of farming money is being lost. As well as this, the cost of growing crops may be ascertained; from this also the cost of a pound of butlerfat may be worked out, for it may be accepted that tho wheat-grower should know the cost of producing a bushel of wheat. The changes in the values of everything which is bought or sold off the farm, the alterations in wages and hours of working, the fluctuations in niarkots, all tend to make book-keeping more than ever necessary to successful farming. Over and above this, there is its usefulness lor Income Tax purposes, on which there is no need to lay further stress.

CRUTCHING. Nowndays one seldom heiirs of any depreciation of the usefulness of crutching: in fact, the practice has now become so general as '.o be almost looked upon its essential. A good time to carry out this work is licforo tho end of this month. If left later there is the chance of winter sotting in, and the yards becoming wet and dirty, and causing the work to extend over too long a time. The owes will also be ncaring a time when it will be advisable to do as little handling ct thorn as possible. While crutchinjr is undoubtedly beneficial, there is a limit as to the quantity of wool that should lie taken off. The price of crutch ings never justified the almost half shearing of the flieep] as is sometimes done, and that is '.he only possible excuse that c;m be found for so doing. In the case of hoggets, the whole object of crutching should be to keep them clean through the winter months to avoid having to yard them whan circumstance* aic most unfavourable. To achieve this object tliore is absolutely no 7ieed to clip higher than the loot of'the tail.

When dealing with breeding ewes it is also advisable to cut a little of the woo! away from the front of the udder: just enough to make it easily accessible In tip young lamb. The wool taken 0" in snatching sliould he picked over carefully, keeping the clean apart from '.hat which is stained. A pood plan is to have two wool packs hung close to the table, and as they are filled replace them, leaving the pressing until crutehing is finished. Tt will then be an easy matter to calculate Ihe number of bales required for packing the woo l. It is at all times advisable to handle ewr-s witli care, but more especially no now, and though the practice of taking a count when moving the flock is one to be commended, it ir far better to miss one than to take any chance of injuring them by crowding them through a gateway. THE PART OF SILAGS.

As a feed silage functions in two ways: it supplies roughage for the animal, and it gives succulence to the ration, thus permitting the digestive tract to mako better use of the other foods consumed. All hough chemical analysis has shown cured green oat hay to contain almost three times the amount, of crude protein and carbo-hydrates and almost twice the quantity of fat that there in in the same weight of silage made Nra green oats, it does not necessarily follow that throe times the quantity of nilage should be fed. The proper quantify of feed will vary with the kind and age of the animals fed. the use they make of the silaep. and the comparative cost and advisability of the different feeds.

For tho mo=t part silacje will be fed to cattle and sheep, hut may he fed in limited quantities to horses and swine. ducklings are extremely hardy and easy to rear and in every way preferable to geese on the farm. I might mention, ns showing what careful mothers Muscovy ducks are, that I have hatched 27 pheasants out of SO pheasant's esizs under a Muscovy duck, but it is a mistake to let the duck rear the pheasants, as I found out to my cost in my experimenta,! days.