THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1035, 25 May 1894, Page 3

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

A lecture; was delivered by Mr Valentine, Chief Government Dairy Expert, at the Agricultural and Pastoral Society's looms, Christchurch, a few days ago. Mr Valentine congratulated the representatives of the. dairying industry upon the rapid strides already made. From a thorough study of the subject he had come to the conclusion that New Zealand was one of the best dairying countries in the world. One great feature in its favor was the sweet and nutritious herbage obtainable. Another advantage was that it could produce grass in mid-winter, and therefore could supply the English market with butter at a time when there was the greatest demand. He spoke strongly on the necessity of the butter output being of a uniform character and of the best quality. England or \ any other large country would never become a dumping ground for secondrate butter. The greatest difficulty that had to be contended with was the attention butter required in transit to England. He understood that shipowners were doing all in their power to prevent a recurrence of the abases which had existed. They should endeavor to ensure a better system of distribution in Great Britain. The greatest drawback at the present time was that the product was left at the mercy of middlemen. Many of these people could be dispensed with to advantage. They must look to a yearly increasing production, which was yet a flea-bite compared with what could be taken at Home. The necessity of establishing distributing centres in all the large towns, especially in the North of England should he recognised. Reports from England pointed to the conclusion that London could be the only distributing centre, and while he agreed that London was a most important centre for the purpose, he thought thac they must ship to other markets, direct. While the population of London was five and a quarter millions there were quite ten millions in the North of England, and if they wished their products to reach those people they must ship direct. He pointed ouS the necessity of using great discretion as to whom they consigned their produce. In his report to be placed before Parliament he would deal further with the matter of distribution. One objection to sending all their produce to London was that the aggregation of population was supplied by the cream of the market, and only inferior quality was sent from there to other places. He had never seen a fair representation of New Zealand produce in any of the larger cities he had visited ; it was all of second-rate quality and, unfortunately, had to compete with the best home-made. This tended to give their produce a bad name. He pointed out that many of those towns were already supplied direct from the United States and Canada, as well as from the Continent of Europe, and the traders would not play second fiddle to the London middleman. He urged the necessity for great care in the production and treatment of the milk before it reached the factory. He knew that it was difficult to prevent unscrupulous persons from supplying unsuitable milk to the factories, and he was aware of the fact that it was almost impossible to prevent inferior stuff being shipped. He was satisfied that it was possible to make quite as good dairy butter as that made at the factories, but the advantage of the factories was that they gave an opportunity of turning out an even article. Tn visiting some of the factories in the North Island he had found several of them at a standstill owing to milk arriving in bad condition, and where such milk was used it was merely putting good men at the mercy o£ the man who brought unwholesome milk to the factories; even the milk from one cow would permeate and deteriorate the whole of the milk it was mixed with. He had seen margarine sold at Home as New Zealand butter, and had known it cause a drop of 5s to 10s per 1001b in the price of New Zealand butter. This showed the necessity for I protecting their product in every pos- i sible way. As an illustration of fraudulent trading^ he mentioned a factory he had visited in Hamburg, whore he had seen, margarine made and afterwards sold in London as pure butter. The matter of grading rested to a great extent with the pioducers themselves, who, he was sorry to say, did not always use their common sense sufficiently to see that each shipment was of even quality. He gave some practical hints on the best breed of cows for dairy purposes, and referred to the necessity of sheltering stock, the use of the best ensilage as feed, the thorough stripping of cows, and cleanliness. Turnips should not be given to butter cows if it could be avoided. If turnips were used, they should be pulped at least 12 hours before feeding. Care should be taken to extract the whole of the buttermilk while the butter made from turnip-fed cows was in a granulated condition. Great care should be taken to areate and cool the mild before sending it to the factory ; otherwise it was liable to be damaged by oscillation, and arrive in a heated ! condition. Before churning the temperature of the cream should be between \54: and 60deg. In speaking on the 'bacon and pork industry he advised

great care in the breeding and selection of the pigs. If the standard of quality were kept up the Colony had nothing to fear from compptition. He pointed out that when New Zealand frozen mutton was first put on the English market it had a clear field, hut this was not the case with their d.'Jry proJuce, as they had to find a market i 1 the face of established . opposition. Therefore 'quality must be thn first consideration, and if they could show that they were turning out good products and that the output was being fairly distributed at Home, they should have no difficulty in .making satisfactory arrangements with financial institutions in the Old Country. In reply to questions Mr Valentine said the Government hoped to be able to arrange for a weekly despatch from the Colony. He did not think the Danes could sell winter butter at 100s. There need be no fear of a glut of butter for many years, as the English farmers were going in for milk-selling instead of bntter-making, and if this became general 150,000 tons more butter would be required annually. He gave several examples of the prompt method of dealing with imports of butter from the Continent. The choicest Victorian and New Zealand butter was quite, equal in quality and flavor to the finest Danish ; pure grass butter must excel stall-fed butter. New Zealand cheese was finer than any other imported into England. Bulk butter was generally preferred in Fngland at present. He was of opinion that when New Zealand butter became properly known and distributed at Home, there would be a good market all the year round. Replying to a vote of thanks for his instructive lecture, Mr Valentine paid a high compliment to the indefatigable zeal and thorough knowledge displayed by Mr John Sawers, the Government dairy instructor.