OUR PRODUCE AT HOME.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 234, 26 June 1908, Page 5

OUR PRODUCE AT HOME.

WHAT' MR. CUDDIE SAW, ; ENCOURAGING FACTS. FAULTS ALSO LAID BARE. On appearing before the Dairy Farmers' Conference at Palmerston yesterday Mr. D. Cuddio (Dairy Commissioner) was received with' undisguised enthusiasm. The attendance was the largest during the conference! The Chairman (Mr. W. J. Foreman) remarked upon tho pleasure it gave them ail to have Mr. Cuddie with them again. Mr. C.uddie said that though not prepared to deliver a set address he would bo glad to say something about butter and cheeso on the Homo '.Market from tho point of view of a New Zealander. i

One for New Zealand. The further one travelled from the Dominion the more one appreciated* tho conditions under which dairying could be 1 carried on horo. He had left here in December last, and jiad arrived in London in January, just in time to see largo shipments of butter and cheese being placed on the market. He saw many cargoes being discharged from the steamers and going away to their destinations. Somo went direct to tho trade and others to the warehouses. Others again wero sent to the great market of Tooley Street. He got into touch with merchants,-chief!v thoso handling New Zealand produce, and was well received. (Applause.) He believed he had been able'to gain- the confidence of those with -whom' he came -in .contact, and they gave him useful information,./which he had stored up for the future. " . . Something About Buttor. "New Zealand butter," he continued, " is looked upon as being one of the soundest and . best keeping butters imported'into England— speaking of the butter as a whole.', You know as well as I do that some of the brands are not always up to .the mark. Others are more or less irregular! Relative Values. While he Was in London much of his timo was taken up examining as many of the different brands of butter coming from other countries as he could. This he had dono with the various salesmen, who had given him a good opportunity of hearing. their opinions. These men wero first-class judges and know what the trado 'demanded iu tho way of quality what butter' suited their particular customers and the relative values. Ho found that- in many cases their opinions as /to quality and flavour coincided largely with his own. ; Most of tho remarks of tho salesmen 111 regard to .New Zealand buttor were of a complimentary nature —simply becauso most of .the New Zealand butter , was good. (Applause.) '.He -found that these men were not-quit© as critical of poor quality as he had thought they would because they did not know, but because thev wero shrewd and preferred to let it go until the buyers came along. Tho buyers seemed to ; have a free right to reject if the buttor was not up to quality. He had compared the butter with that of' Denmark, Siberia; v and tho Commonwealth of Australia.

Some Comparisons. New Zealand butter compared very highly with the makes from the Continental countries. One man had gone so far as to say that -the New Zealand butter was better than Danish for six months in the year. But this was not the general' opinion, and he was sorry it. was not his opinion either, after he had seen the butters all together. Danish Butter, Of course, Danish butter was only a few days old when it reached the market; and as to whether it would be as good as New ■Zealand-butter after it.was subjected-to the san\e storage and shipping conditions ho was not prepared to say. Ho proceeded to submit some of the reasons why Danish butter brought higher prices than New Zealand. In the first placo, tho Danish article was moro uniform at the time it calne on the, market.' Next,' it came fresh upon the market every week. The English shopkeepers did not, as a general rule, purchase more than would keep them in supply until the next lot arrived. Then, again, the Danish butter • was not frozen and no time was. lost'in thawing. _ Another reason was that many of the Danish butters came direct, to tho same peoplo. They had.practically only ono brand of butter—though, perhaps, other " sub "« brands—and these brands went generally to the same people. He had come across one firm who had handled the one' manufacture of butter for twenty years. He had inquired if tho butter was always the. same, and the answer was "No.", It varied a little, but dealing as the' buyers had for so long with the ono article, they know that it would quickly recover its quality. Another reason why Danish butter brought moro than ours —at least lie had some information about it —was the fact that they had a Buttor Committee in Denmark.

Butter Committee, The committee was composed of four men, representing tile factories, while four were elected by the Chambers of Commorce; and the Chairman was also - a member of the Chamber of Commerce. They met evory Thursday and ho had been told by a merchant in Copenhagen that every merchant practically in Denmark sent ill a report to the committee with regard to the state of tho market. These reports were road to tho committee. Other Hints. The farmers had a statistical bureau which nearly all tho factories belonged to. Amongst other things tho duty of the secretary of that society was to collect information of tho actual sales in Denmark during the week, and to make up an average, sending a telegram to tho committco sitting at Copenhagen. That, of courso was impossible in New Zealand. " If you wont up Tooloy Street," said Mr. Cuddie, "you would see a good many anxious eyes waiting to see the state of the market as the result of this . system." If New Zealand .could only raise

the quality of tho " lower" grades lip to that of tho hotter class, wa would have a reputation second to none. Poor Butter. Perhaps, said Mr. Cuddie, too milch had been mado of late yoars of tho quality of New Zealand buttor. Tho idea would be conveyed that they made a lot of inferior grado butter. Ho was opposed to running down our own butter. (Applause.) At tho same time it would be idle, not to tako account of this poor quality butter. Ho did not supposo it would- bo possiblo to raiso tho whole of their butter to tho best, but they could try, the worst fault was in oily, fishy flavour. There/was no doubt that a certain proportion of their'buttor had that taste. He had seen a good deal of it. And unfortunately it appeared amongst highscoring buttor. Most of it, however, was in tho lower classes, and somo had been marked second-grado before leaving New Zealand. Fishiness was one of tho worst flavours butter could liavo from • the trade point of viow—it was worse than a rancid flavour.. It appeared in all butters on tho market, but most in that from Now Zealand and Australia. This was because it had somo time to develop. It was not common in Danish butter. He had made inquiries at well-known laboratories as to tho causo and tho remedy. • After all investigations tho theory could not bo shelved that it . was due' to some form of putrifying germs. Ho was told that Ihe way to overcome it was to prevent tho milk and cream from being contaminated; if necessary to go on the farms • and find out if tho milk was being properly handled. ' Pasteurisation. While not prepared to recommend wholesale pasteurisation of butter in Now Zealand —because tho timo was not yet rino for it —be would tell those whoso butter was liable to. turn out fishy that their best plan was to pasteurise. This was the only remedy as far as ho could gather. Other Matters.. As to texture, they had'a good namo for a well-made' butter. Dealing with the question of -weight, Mr. Guddio impressed upon dairy managers tho necessity" for keeping their packages up to weight. Tor correctly weighed packages customers were willing to pay Is. or 2s. a cwt. more. It was important that the weight should bo as represented. The packing and finish of New Zealand butter was as desired. The Russian exporters bad copied us largely in this, respect. Preservatives. While ho was at Home, tho question of preservatives in butter cropped ■ up. Tho Home Government, he said, had been collecting evidence recently in connection with tho use of preservatives in foods generally, including butter. He had seen Dr. Buchanan and his assistant, and they had held a wrong impression as to what wo were doing in this respect. They thought we were putting tho preservative in cream to keen it from turning sour on the way to the factories. Mr. Cuddie had explained that wo did 110 such thing. The preservative in very small quantities was added to., tho butter to assist its keeping qualities. Dr. Buchanan had made an analysis, and, though the matter was at present confidential, 31r. Cuddie understood tliat the investigation had borne out this statement. Ho bolioved that the use of preservative in Now Zealand butter would still be permitted at Homo. Of course, the butter could do without it, but a little was beneficial when tho butter had to bo hold so long after manufacture beforo being sold ancl used. " 1 CHEESE. Though not able to sco all tho shipments of Now Zealand cheese, ho had inspected and sampled a good many. , Speaking generally, tho quality was fairly satisfactory—that was to say, that the best<cheeses, the kind tho retailer and consumer wore shipped; They required to be. sound in flavour and close and "meaty" in bpdy, with a certain amount of firmness, and to possess the characteristics of Cheddar cheese.' Ho had analysed stores of cheese in Loildon and the provincial towns of England and parts of Scotland. He had found causo of,dissatisfaction in tho poor class of cheeso.' There was inferior flavour and. evidence of-faults in manufacture. Green Cheese. Tho greatest complaints wero. with tho green cheese. 'This-article appeared to bo too stiff, too green, to "boney," ,and so. on. This was a 1 matter requiring attention. Tho most common complaint in flavour was the, "off" flavour. Somo called it tho "Now Zealand flavour," though it was not characteristic of New Zoalaud cheese. A good many complaints wore also mado in regard to openness and looseness of body. This kind of cheese was not popular. It had a bad appearance on the counters. "Openness" undoubtedly was duo to the curds being salted beforo being properly If green cheeso was to bo continued to bo shipped Now Zealand's good namo would suffer.' It would pay New Zealand companies to hold their shipments threo weeks beforo boing put on board. (Hoar; hear.) They must do ono of two things. They -must either hold their green cheese until it matured or/raise the carrying temperature of the steamers. Mr. Cuddie Pleased. In conclusion, ho said that the high average quality of tho butter and chees at Home was what had pleased him. ■ They wero not getting as much as tho Danes for their butter, becauso Denmark's average was higher. We wero getting more money than Siberia and Australia, so that if »/o sent Homo. the best quality butter and cbeßso we had nothing to fear.

Mr. Cuddio was accorded long applause. In reply to a questioner, Mr. Cuddio advised tho adoption of tho Canadian system of checking the temperatures of the boats on which clieeso was sent Home.

. Oil the motion of the chairman, a hearty vote of thanks was given to Mr. Cuddie, remarks being passed as to the practical usefulness of .his address.'