DUAL PLANTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 301, 14 September 1908, Page 3

DUAL PLANTS.

CHEESE .VERSUS BUTTER. ■WARM DISCUSSION AT KAPONGA. At a meeting of the Kaponga Co-operative Dairy Factory Company last week Mr. R. T. B. Mellow, late chairman of directors, got up and in tho midst of somo opposition exclaimed:—" Wo have been robbed of a halfpenny for every pound of butter-fat this season." Tho Mangatoki Company had paid out ovor £-10,000 to shareholders. A shareholder: Tlioy made butter. - Mr. Mellow: We have the dual plant. We should harp made butter., A shareholder: You wero on the directorate. - Mr. Mellow said the company changed about between cheese-making and buttermaking, and when advised to mako butter ' it could not mako it. Ho acknowledged that ho was on the directorate when tho mistakes had beenfmade, but he had pointed out tho position. . The- Mangatoki over-run was 13.28; theirs was d.nly 10. Cheese factories had paid Is. Mr.'; Swadling: I can explain that. ( Mr.'. Mellow: "We have utterly failed to grasp "the position, 'though I pointed it out time sifter time until 1 was sick of it. What was th'e'advantage of a dual plant unless we could use'it? .Mr.' MTSwen said the making of cheese spoilt' th? factory for butter. If they had made cheese a few weeks longer than they did they 'would have come out better. Mr.' Wright' said ho could a tale unfold regarding the expenses Mr. Mellow wanted the cotrfpany to, incur. Mr. Swadling said When Mr. Mellow was. chairman the 'company was practically , bankrupt. '. ' ■_ / : Here occurred an altercation between' Mr. Swndling^and. Mr. 'Mellow, during which neither was intelligible owing to the other shouting 'him down. . . A ' said the company .had been a rank failure since'cheese-making-was taken on. - >'■•' Mr.. said he was satisfied cheesemaking had'been a mistako and that he had lost £1 a! cow over it. Tlie'y got a letter from the agents asking them".to mako half, cheese and. half butter, and, they had replied that 'they'Jcould not-make both, and so tlioy made cheese. , Tho chairman said prices for cheese- would be better 1 this'year. . 1 Mr. Tait said they seemed to have got the bottom prices for both butter • and . cheese. How was it they 1 could not compare with tjie,Mangatoki Company? They had 'only a-few' miles.farther to cart their-stuff to thei railway. Mr.?Wright said they had an over-run of 10 and the - Mangatoki factory had 13.23. They t-were now putting in a churn" that would. let them sell moisture as the other companies were doing. . Mr. Mellow said he had no quarrel with Mr.' Farley (the manager), but' the expenses had been one-third above those of any other company. ," ' ■ . Mr., J. B. Bennie .(the secretary)' quoted figures to show that it, cost Riverdale (an old-established factory) only a little less to manufacture cheese than \it cost Kaponga: The figures were .75d. f.0.b., as against ,87d. f.o.b.j leaving out depreciation in eaclrcaso. To make th 6 comparison fairer allowance should be made in the cost of manufacture at' Kaponga'for repairs and renewals (£360 16s. 3d.), and to an increased wages bill, as they had to' keep men in employment because the butter'factory was not ready.' The chairman 'said the machinery in the old factory had been put on one side to allow a cheese plant to be put in. That was why the plant was not ready to mako butter when required. ' ' Expferts now said their cheese factory was the best in Nep;'Zealand. Mr.' Swadling: -Wo ; havo, in tho world. (Enthusiastic cheers.) • ' , Mr. Mellow said' the experts had testified that the milk was very fair on the whole. The manager was too severe on tho suppliers. . .-■■ Sir. Wright defended the manager for refusing,'unclean milk. ' .That some suppliers were not careful-was. shown by'the graders' notes.;.' . " . Mr. Swadling said Mr. Farley was very highly thought of by the Kaupokonui people, and if the Kaponga people-let him go.the speaker's opinion was that the -Kaupokonui 'people would take him back. (Applause.) Finally, the meeting resolved in favour of butter-making till the middle of November, and (other things being equal) cheese-making afterwards. MAIZE AND SORGHUM. VALUE ON THE DAIRY FARM. Speaking at the annual meeting of tho Riverdale Dairy Company (reports tho "Taranaki Daily News"), the chairman of directors, Mr. T. H. Collins, referred to the fact that last year, owing to the drought, thero was a decrease of 60,4251b5. of butter-fat. His advice to shareholders was to go in i for growing maize for autumn feed for cows. Two years ago he put in one-third of an acre of- maize, which kept his coyys going for twenty days. Last year he put in two acres, and he milked exactly the same number of cows as before, but in spite of the. drought'and two points less in, test his returns showed 5451b5. of butter-fat more than previously, arid he took it that this was entirely due to ;.the maize. The loss to Riverdale suppliers owing to the drought was about £3000, but'the man with the maize lost nothing. Ho suggested that all the shareholders should endeavour to put in a bit of maize. Anj'ono with am acre of maize might reckon on having six weeks' supply of .feed for sixty cows, and could shut up the other paddocks. /' ■THE USES OF WATER. HUMOUR IN A DAIRY. FACTORY DIRECTOR. : In a recent speech in Taranaki the chairman of .'a certain dairy company observed that the'lo'ss last year owing to tho drought would "afnount to something over £50 to each supplier. This was a big itom for each individual supplier to lose. In drought seasons there are various ways of keeping lip the sujply 'to the factories. One-way is by adding'. water to tho milk, and many dairymen coitend that tho dilution improves tho test! 'Perhaps it was in search of a high test tfiat the suppliers to company watered .their. milk. last year. The company did not pay for water; all that was paid for water- was tlio cost of working it into tho cheese; 1 Thore was not much butter-fat in water. ' It' liad been a common thing in .tho past, but tliq; factory was quite safo now, as noxt soasbn the/lactometer test would be used, aihd e.ach supplier could see for himself the result of'the test. THE AUGUST EXPORTS. The following are. tho quantities_ of produce, exported from New Zealand during August, <in comparison with tho quantities in August of last year:—

■ Year. ■' Aug. Aug. 1907 ' 1908. Butter,' cwi. 1,821 1,373 Cheese,' cwt.- ... ' ... 182 1,359 Beef, cwt. ■ ... ... 46,667 35,836 Mutton 1 / carcasses ... 148,098 134,033 Mutton, legs and picces, c«*ts. ! ...! ... : ... 2,651 ' 3,517 Lamb, -carcasses ... .207,928 Wheat, bushels... 108 173 Other grain, . etc., t,u:ih<;is : ..." ... 25,507-' 45,939 Oats, huslmlfi -•... ... ■ 418 134,762 I'd-otn'-f, tons 10 35 Hf.'i&u, .tons •••'. ... 1,275 397 Tow, tons ...* ... 293' 203 Pi.ulti-y, pairs ... ... 357 6 Rabbit*, cwt. ... ... 10,409 ■ 6,371 Kauri gum, tons ... 609 755 Hops, cwt ... ... 515 28 Hides, Inumber ... ••• 19,734 13,905 Skins, nil kinds ... 1,114,210 1,092,021 Tallow, tons: ... .1,455 1.529 Timber," sup. ft. ... 6,228,600 8,958,573 Wool, lbs s .. ... 2,933,329 5,465,459