DAIRY INSTRUCTION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 314, 29 September 1908, Page 5

DAIRY INSTRUCTION.

MR. SINCLETON'S VIEWS. Mr/ W. M. Singleton, of the Government Dairy Division, who is at present making an official visit of tho Now Zealand cheese factories, has favoured our Wairarapa correspondent with a short interview relative to tho dairying industry. The first thing touched upon was the pro- - posed dairy regulations. Mr. Singleton thought that Tather a severe outcry had be-on raised over the whole business. It would never be intended, he said, to apply the law in so drastic a manner that it would weigh with extreme harshness on the shoulders of the farmers. In proof of this statement, he referred to the present Act, which, he said, contained provisions, quite as drastic as those which were now being proposed, but which had never yet been put into operation. The reason why they had never yet been put . into operation was that the officials had gov- ' erned'more by suggestion than by inspection. Dairy inspectors, said Mr. Singleton; should possess tact and common sense, so that their work with' the farmers might run upon what one niight term co-operative lines. Winter Feed. . ' ■ Mr. Singleton is a strong advocate for the growth of w!ator feed as a stand-by for dairy' sto&k m the off season. It was very evident, he said, that large numbers of farmers did not give this portion of their business the proper attention. If a f cow were •nurtured as she should bo before calving, she should'be giving her biggest'supply of milk a fortnight after "coming in." In how many instances, however, was this the case? It happened in far too few cases, and therein the farmer was unknowingly or unthinkingly robbing himself. ' Tho favourable seasons were probably the reason why many New Zealand dairymen , did ; not make ._ a practice of winter as was done' in Canada, but whenever there came along an unex- . pected shortage in the pastures,-our farmers found out;thcir iiiistake.; - Cheese or Butter CowsMr. Singleton was asked if he thought that the cheese , and butter industries each 'demanded a; different, breed of cows. There might be something in the argument, said Mr. Singleton, but he was not prepared to make a direct statement on the subject. He thought that the best plan was for farmers to use the breed of dairyca'ttle in which they were' most/ interested.'' It might by! a. Holstein, Ayrshire, shorthorn, or Jersey cross. The main thing was to give them the proper attention. .' Heavy milkers with a large amount of solids were apparently very useful for cheese-making purposes. The Cheese Outlook. Regarding the season's cheese. prospects, Mr. Singleton thought that they were dis;. tinctly fa.vourable. The market was active; with good'prices, with the result that many of the dual factories in Taranaki had . plumped for cheese. Chief of these factories was Riverdale,' with twelvo ,vats—the largest institutionvof its kind in New Zealand: Thero appeared 'every, probablity ..that, the ,manu--facture of cheese in New Zealand would this season prove a record.Tho make of cheese suffered to 'some'extent rowing to numbers of suppliers', not being able to'difi'erentiate'between the system of'supply for the manufacture of cheese and that for butter. If good cheese was to bq turned out, the milk should ho brought to the factory early , in the morning. The samo provision might not be so necessary for the manufacture of butter, and it was in this conflict of method that, the make of cheese often suffered at a dual factory; j.; . 'i d'Lhi' • ' A Puzzle In ."Finish/? .• ,<■ Touching upon other'subjects, Mr. Singleton; said, that he did not believe that there was any' grea.t difference in the ; ' system adopted by,, some South Island and. North Island cheese-makers in the'' 'finish" of their produce. He could not quite account for the difference in the colour of the bandages of the show cheese at' the winter show at Palmerston North, when one exhibit was mostly pure white and tho others were mottled. The trouble might, have been caused by. the storage chamber in, which all the cheeses were placed prior to the show, but against this conclusion was the fact that the cheeses which were not affected were placed in the centre of the others, and consequently should have been in the worst con'dition. The treatment. of cheese for show purposes was something very special, not • usually carried out for ordinary manufacture. If there were any secret process by which the colour of, the'bandages" of cheese could he" maintained, and which could be of service for general, manufacture, then tho Department' would see 'that the information was made public in the interests of the industry. This was not the case, however, in the point referred to, although he firmly believed in the importance which attached to sending out cheese in a nicely-finished condition.