DAIRY ITEMS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11109, 30 October 1901, Page 4

DAIRY ITEMS.

Mr James Baker, one of Ashburtoa'a oldest residents, is relinquishing cabinet making for dairy fanning, and leaves for the New Plymouth district about the end of the year_ having purchased in that locality a dairy farm of 200 acres and a herd* of .forty cows. .The Gnryere cheese factories in the East of France cover six dewirtments, five' of, which are situated on the Swiss frontier, .and tbe quantity made has increased from 15,000 tons in 1882 to 18.500 tons in 1892. It is now estimated to reach 25,000 tons, whiioh, as the average price of about Sd per lb, represents an annual value' 'of £1200,000. Tbe Grayer.* cheeses are always made large, the average weight being '88ib, while in Swit-erland,- where the cheese is, known as "Eta-Aenthal," they -usually weigh 2201b each.' The first essential to securing clean-and 1 healthful milk is a' clean and healthful cow. : It is next to impossible to secure clear and I pure milk from a dirty cow;- it is impossible to get' healthful ' milk from an "unhealthy cowl ■ Given-- ,a clean and btealtby cow, she must be provided' with 'a sufficient quantity of clean, healthful, and nutritious food and' water. This js tbe second essential. The third essential is tbat the person who does the milking, and the place where the milking is done, shall also be clean and healthful. A dirty milker, one with dirty hands, cannot do clean milking. No perobn who is suffering from;' or who attends upon others suffering from, any contagious disease can milk without contwniriating the milk. Scarlet fever, - meaalesy and diphtheria are especially liable' to transmission by a milker. The fourth essential is keeping the milk clean until it is to be used. Much more milk is damaged before it gets out of the cowhouse than after; nevertheless, eternal vigilance is necessary from the milk pail to the ./utter plate. Wash, rinse, scald, scour, and sun all the milk vessels, is. the only programme that assures success. Clean, and pure outter earn only come from clean and pure milk. Once filth of any kind gets into milk, its essence stays there. ' Straining, aeration, separation, each does something, and all may do much toward cleaning muk, but the only safe or satisfactory way ia never to let it get in. Purity is indeed cleanliness, and cleanliness is health.

A number of tests were made at the Ontario Agricultural College to see the effects of washing curds with, different quantities of water, and with, water at different ternSeratures. The curd from a vat of niilJc was ivided into two equal parte after milling. One half was washed and tbe other haif was not. In the first series the experimenters compared cheese made by washing curds with a quantity of water equal to the weight of the curd with cheese made from similar curds, but unwashed. The temperatures «f tbe water were 90, 95, 100, 105 and 110 degreea. In the second series the effects -were compared of washing curds with a quantity of water equal to twice the weight of the curd, with the results from similar euros unwashed. The temperature' of the watex varied from 90 to 110 degrees, as in the first series. The results may be summarised a* follows:—J.. Washing curds after miliing tends to improve the flavour of cheese, especially of cheese mode from curd, bad in flavour. Cheese mode from washed curds had a tendency to be open. There was little difference in tne general quality of the cheese made - from washed and unwashed curds when the milk was in good condition.. 2. Washing curds tends to reduce the yield of cheese. The average lots in these experiments was 1.121bs of cured chees*. per lOOOlbs of milk. 3. There was not much diuerenee in the results from washing with water at temperatures ranging from 90 to 110 degrees. The average loss of cheese was somewhat less from washing with water at 90 degrees, but the quality of the cheese was better witwater at i.lO degrees.