NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12569, 11 August 1906, Page 11

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER.

THE MARKET PROSPECTS. INTERVIEW WITH MR SAMUEL LOWE. Mr Samuel Ixnve, who is in charge of'the dairy produce branch of Messrs W Wedded and Co.* business, is now on a visit to the colony, and was yesterday interviewed by a number of our B taff on several matters connected with the dairy industry. Asked as to how New Zealand butter ta d satisfied the market during tho B eaaon just cloeod, Mr Lowe sa.d :- .. Very well indeed. It- has been excellent and complaints were remarkably few Indeed, I do not remember a VM r when less complaints wero made. Of course, there aro always a number of complaints, especially ii you have a falling market. That is true of all trades But the market was very until tho middle of January, when ft slumped, and that slump came about owing to the excessive high prices." -What aro tho prospects of the coming are, as you know, at the maximum record, but 1 doubt very Si whether the butter that » being " Ugxu here is not a speculative t-ran*-actbn rather than a genuine pto to the retail trade in England, recard to probable supdies when I left England in •ho beginning ot June the oiuy coun,try that was likely to show any tailing off "__, tho United States, but they are J?y erratic , and that falling oft can- • not be sufficient to warrant high ,rices. Tho present prices prolub.t lie retail of New ZeaWl butter in I, Hand under 1-kl por lb, and there is always tho danger that when you gerc thew high prices for butter people will turnto cheaper substitutes such J margarine, etc., as they did in January last, and brought about that hie slump. 'It ia true that the consuming power of tho people is now creator than it was twelve months ago, but it is also equally truo that meat is much cheaper than it. was last war, and this will prejudicially affect tlio prices of cheese as well as butter. 1 think those factory managers who havo got IOJd per lb for -their butter t.0.b., have done wisely in accepting that price, ami it will not surprise mc to find that before a month is over such values will bo unattainable. Looking «t this forward business from the English poiiHt of view, the buyers there will recognise that tho present price is meet abnormal, and many of them will undoubtedly prefer to wait and run the risk of tlie values ruling when tlio butter roaches tho market." "What about the question of moisture in butter?" . "In regard to moisture m butter, the experts and authorities in New Zealand doubt whether New Zealand batter woukl keep as well as it now does if there were more water in it. It is said that tlie water with which a large portion of the butter is washed is not so pure as the experts could wish, and this would cause tho butter to deteriorate if there wore more in it than at present. If this be so, then I say by nil means keep your butter as dry ns it i 6 now. If on the other hand it is found by experience that the butter will keep equally as well with, two or throe per cent, more moisture in it, then it appears to mc to be asking human nature to do more than what is reasonable to give away 2s or 3s por cwt for the sake of a theory. Rut tho keeping quality must bo maintained before evc^ything. ,, . "Ja there any truth in the statement that high prices are given for our butter because of its suitability for blending purposes?" "Undoubtedly. It is to a largo extent purchased because of its dryness. They manipulate it by blending it with butter with more water in it and adding water to it. It is made up into pound rolls and sold as ' fresh butter,' this term in England moaning butter very slightly salted. But even your salted butter is never sold as New Zealand. The reason is that at most not 10 per cent. of consumers knew there js 6uch a thfi-tg in exi-tenoe as New Zealand butter in England. If the New Zealand Government would only bring to the notice of the consumers that there is BUch a thing purchaseable in England, and that it is of very high quality, then consumers would ask for it, and grocero and -otlier butter men would keep it in their shops and placard it as such. A private firm audi as Nestles, has created a large demand for their milk by advertising their goods to the public iv an attractive form. If the New Zealand Government were to ipond £10,000 or £20,000 on coloutred posters on the style of Nestles* they Would do the butter industry an im- • mease amount of good.' Every consumer in England Knows that Danish butter is good, and if they knew , equally well that New Zealand pro- . cjuced such excellent butter they would ; naturally ask for it. I have never known a period during the last fifty years when there was a more kindly feeling or a more eager desire to help tho colonies than at the present moment. The time, therefore, m very opportune to advertise your butter. I want tho , difference between faking and blending butter made clear. Faking butter means mixing butter with other - fats, such as oooo&mtt oil, stearino, . nmrgarino, and other' simitar substances, and I say that any man who .mixes any fat with butter and self, it as genuine hotter should be sent to : prison without tho option of o fine. Nothing lose than some suoh drastic . means will ever stop this faking, because the profits are so enormous. Blending, however, is quite a different thins,'and it is an absolute necessity in England. Formerly wo had to eat farmers' butter which varied in Sualitv every week, and to get over lis difficulty blenddng was resorted to. by which means a regular standard of quality is kept up the whole ye*»r round. This is satisfactory to the consumer, and equally satisfactory to the retailer, because there are no complaints. It may interest New Zealand readers to know that the highest prieo brought by any butter in the British market is that for Fronch fresh butter, every ounce of which is Mended, awl there are many -thousand tens of it imported into England aud retailed at 16d to 18d: per lb." "What havo you to say about cheese for the coming Wuson ?" "Last year the price of cheese in England was exceptionally high, a result largely duo to the competitive struggles between a few largo firms for toe. monopoly of Canadian cheese, and as there have been new amalgamations among tho largo cheese firms in England, it is possible that this keen contest to monopolise the Canadian cheese . trade may, in the ooming season, cause an artificially high prieo to rule, but the smaller men in the cheese trade "suffered last'year, and I believe they J"U fight vory stubbornly before they hand over tho market to tho would-be nwjnopolisere. The price of frozen meat -.much lower thaai last year, and • when this is the case, tlie demand for cheese always slackons, and prices decline. I do not expect cheese- will rule as high in the coming season as m the past." . "Are there any otlier points of interest to thogo engaged in our dairy industry that, you would like t,> tench upon?" "Yes. The New Zealand cow gives her milk pure and sweet to the dairyman ; but there is considerable damage , done to this milk before it roaches the butter and cheese factories. My suggestion as that tlie farmers should be j. taught bow to keep their milk in better " °? nc - i -ti on * far most of the damage is done through sheer ignorance of" the •«_wj of contamination and fermeuta-

tion, by which milk is so easily affected. Farmers forg:-t that milk cannot go sour of itseflf. It '8 the baoteria in. it that gives it differeoi tastes and flavours. Therefore, the sanitary conditions surrcmuling the milk beforo it leaves the dairy, farmer's hands ought to bo improved. If milk or cream is pasteurised the difficulty* would lie got over, but pasteurising wants to be done, at an early stace after milking. For, if the milk has gone- off past-en rising w«H J-°t make -t right, but will only prevent it from getting worse. Considering fhat all tlu> butter sent into England from Denmark is made from pasteurised cream or milk it shows what ought to be done in New Zealand.'" "So faa* as I have seen -there is great room for improvement in tho dairy- herds themselves. The dairy farmer should breed for milk and not for Wf. Too many of them h-cod their cows with the id-ea that'whon. they fail as milkers they will make more money for the butcher, and also that their store stock will he more suitable for the "•razier. Tlie first cross between the Jersey and Shorthorn. Hol-toin or \vrslJlro, will mako a pood dairy cr>w, as the Jersey will improve tlio quality of tho milk. You want some experiment stations where tho crossing of the different breeds could bo earned out and farmers shown, which are the roost profitable cows. It would undoubtedly l»o a goo-1 thing to import some of i/uo fine milking strains of Shorthorns [rum England to improve tho Shorthorn stock yon have, and mako them still more suitable for crossing purposes."