FARMING AND COMMERCIAL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1171, 5 July 1911, Page 10

FARMING AND COMMERCIAL.

THE DOMINION SHOW

' AT HAWERA. •HOW THE BUTTEK HOXOUES WENT. ■ (Bj Tclegrapu-Spccial Kcporter.) . Hawera, July 1 The second .Dominion Dairy Show is to ■bo opened at Han em , to-morrow. lord : Islington arrived this evening by the mail ; train, smd he is to perform the official 'opening: to-morrow afternoon .'at 2 o'clock; Prior, to that there' will be n.n official welcome to his Excellency by the Mayor and i'he Borough Councillors, and, in the ' afternoon, an official reception to farmers will be hold, lu the evening his Excellency .will be entertained at dinner at tiio Central Hotel by the Winter Show Committee. , The show will be continued (ill Saturday night. For the show season, various "attractions" are. billed ■ to-night. The Hon. Thos. Mackenzie is lecturing in '.the Opera Uou;c on "The I'iordl.iud of ■ Ntnv Zealand," in aid of the Hnwera Hospital fund?, and the-Governor mid suite ■ arc nttending. ... To-morrow' night Mr. W. T. Hamblyn ,is to deliver an address in the Technical School cu wooj-clnssi:ig. The Plnmpton Coursing , ' Club's annual meeting is set down for Wednesday and Thursday, and the interpfovinciiil Kugby match—Tara,nnki v. Wanuanni— is fixed for Thursday. The New Zealand . I'actory • Managers' Association meets at the Borough C'oun. i cil Chambers during'the four'days of the ■show/ ■ . ' '

. The judges at the show are:—The Dairy I Commissioner and stuff for butter and i.cheese,; Mr. G. V. Tate for-the public 'schools division; Mr. 0. H. Clark, art '.Fcctioh; Mrs. J. J. Patterson, home industries; 3fr...J. B-uiks, honey;. Mrs. liaino land Miss Tiirton. fancywork; Messrs. G. Y. Tate .and J. .1. Elwin. farm and: gar- ■ iclen produce; Mr. T. JJacre, poultry; Mr! A. T. Moore,' cats'and dogs; Mr. W. Dib•l)!e, OTSilagb. • . '

Yiswed in the last stage of .preparation ; for-the opining, the show .appears to l>? !a very good om.'. v The Agricultural De■partment's display will, for one : thing, be a great attraction, and..the ;dairy produce is a big feature. The bntiter was judged to-day, but'the awards in cheese will not be finally decided till to'jnorro'w. ...'■'

, .Regarding tlio butter awards and matjtc'rs connected with same, the Dairy Coin■;.mi?sioner.. (Jlr. .D. Cuddie) was. inter'viewed, and stated that the display in ■those classes, shows, an ineiv-Ho in . the number of exhibits as compared with last year, while the competition for tho prizes in'-every class was even keener than before. The 801 l Block Company carried off the honours in the two first classes. Their butter was of a very high quality, and the tame may be said of the prizewinners in. the other two classes. Taking the butter all through,-the quality was very good. In fact, there, was - not ■a, .box of inferior butter shown." In the third-class the degree of uniformity .was , the-'principal ■feature. Tor second place it. was. found nece.-sary to group four ..of '.the factories, , us their butters.wore,! of.-.the', panic hierit, and it is understood. that the sbqw. company is adjusting the; prizes accordingly.'' A few of factory man-' fljters, in their efforts \to excel,■have, evidently handled, their, cream in such a .way • as' to' produce'a butter which is somewhat; flat and insipid in flavour, instead of producing a gutter possessing that nice nutty taste.; which is' so characteristic, of the butter desired by the. trade.. Whijo it is commendable .to hiive butter of an absolutely cleanflavour,, the ereanv should hf ripened in such a way that, the flavour will be'full, 'and the proper amina discernible. v,.«,v-'

BUTTER COMPETITION. * Box of .factory butter. Open competition'. ■jj .. i-.i --< • fn a . o o5 « H Bell Block « 24 10* 10 5 94 Mcrcmere «4 24 10. 10 5 931' I,'evin 44 '24 10 10 5 95 Rtfatford 43J 24 10 10 5 92J Cheltenham .... 43J 24 10 10 5 92V Defiance ' 43J 24 10 '10- 5 92V Whenuakara, ...' 44 234 10 10 5 n\ Ballanco 43J 23i 10-10 5 -92 Dunnythorpe ... 431 23J 10 10 5 92 3fe113 13J 231 10 10 5 92 liivcrdale «i 24 10 10 5 911 Maketa-wa ' 43 2.31 10 10 5 911 Kaponga 421 234 10 " 5 91 Pihama 43 23 10 10 5 91 , Otaki' 421 231 10 10 5 91 Ballance 421 235 10 10 5 91 Banuitikei [ 411 231 10 10 5 90 Ifidhirat 41 24 10 10 5 90 ' Taranaki Championship. Bell Block 45 '24 10 10 . 5 94 ; ; Stratford 445 24 10 10 5 931 'Meremere 44 24 10 10 5 95 . ,>Whenuatara ... 431 24 -10 10 5 523 rNormanby 43* 24 10 10 5 921 Hells 431 24 10 10 5 924 ".Eivcrdale- 431 24 10 10 5 921 ■Jliclhirat 421 24 10 13 5 91i ' Pihama. 43 •23 10 10 5 91 Kaponga .......... 42 24 10 10 5 91 Box factory butter. Bunnythorpe ... 441 24 10 10 5 931' ' Lovin ;• 44 24 10 . 10 5 .93 Cheltenham ... 44 24 10 10 5 93 Bnllance 44 24 Iβ 10 5 93 Stratford ..: 44 24 10 10 5 93 Defiance 431 24 10 '10 5 921 ■Mells 431 24 10 10 6 92J Eiverdale 431 24 10 10 5 92* Bell Block 431 24. 10 10 5 . 92J. ■ffhenuaUiira ... 44. 235 10 10 a 92i Normanby «J 231 10 10. 5 .92 Worcmcro 43i 231 10 10 5 92. Ota™ ..!..' 43 231 10 10 5 911 Eangitikci ...... 43 231 10 10 '5 91* Kaponea- 42 24' 10 10 5 91 Ballance ...; 42 24 10 10 5 91 Pihama 43 23 10 10 5 91 Export b'uttur. Kaponsa ...' .« 24 10 10 - 5 92. liallance «i 24 10 10 5 911 Khama 43 23 . 10' 10 5 91 FISHINESS IN BUTTER. -IN DEFENCE OF MR. CUDDIE: In a recent issue of Tub Dominion there appeared a letter from Mr. P. Anderson Estcourt, in which references wer-e made to the speech of the Dairy Commissioner (Mr. D. Guddie) delivered at the •Dairv Conference at I'almerston >.orth, in which speech Mr. Cuddio touched upoii tlie subject of fishiness in butter. A gentleman who.is known to have de : voted a, good deal of time to studying "fishiness" in butter, speaking to a DoiriN'tox representative yesterday/ said that Mr. Estcourt "should bo .sure of his facts before posing as an authority on matfers connected with the, dairying industry." Continuing, he said:—"lf this, gent-la-man had been present at tho conference at Palmersion North, he would have' known that-Mr. Cnddic did not tell the audience about a theory in regard to fishihms in butter, bat that he simply explained clearly and concisely what au- ' tuully took place in connection with a series of exhaustive experiments carried oi'it at. one of the principal .butter factories during last season. He pointed out that it ■ had been proved that the over-ripeiiirii of cream was. attended with very great danger, and that fishy flavour developed in butter made from this class of cream, whertas Iher; was no sign of the taint in butter made from a portion of the same cream churned at an earlier ptitKe, and in which a lower percentage of acidity had developed. Heppated trials carried on for some considerable time gave exactly the same result. Jn every case butter, made from the over-ripened cream became fishy, while the 'control' samples of buffer made from the same vat of cream were absolutely free, from this defect. The starter, water, and salt ■ used were tho same, the only difference being that one portion of the cream wa3 allowed to become more sour than the other. "Experiments carried on in the United States for two years have demonstrated the fact that high acidity is essential to the development of fishy butter, but it is admitted that the actual cause may be quite- a different thing. Mr. Kstcourt says, 'It is well known that affer the cream hns been pasteurised that the acidity .<••' the cream is practically eliminated ;'bu~ he i> entirely wrong hero. If he understood tho subject, he would know that the pasteurisation of.cream does not reduce its acidity except by the merest fraction—seldom, more than .02 per cent.

G3EWB AND ROTES.

A FIGHTING SPEECH,

Mr. Eslcoml is also very much astray re-, pirding the non-development of nshiness in ununited butter. ])niry companies have.frequently lost heavily through Hiix fault in their un?altcd butter. Samples of ununited fishy butter can he -?en during any season. Can Mr. E>teourt explain why iishiness. has been detected in butter which has been salted with salt received'in barrels, if, as claimed by him, the salt bajs are responsible? His .»ugcestion that chemicals should be added to the milk to keep it sweet is really hardly worthy of consideration."'

"SOUBCE OF CREAM POLLUTION." At the big dairy Conference in New South Wales last month a paper was rend on behalf of Mr. A. W. Giles, referring to what he. termed tho. "greatest source of cream pollution." He made a number of niiliiiint statements concerning factory managers and methods of butter manufacture (says the Sydney "Herald"). Tha conference was electrified. His opening statement to the clTeet that thousands of tons of cream and butter were annually contaminated by factory managers and their employees through ignorance in handling the raw material riveted the attention of the delegates. The accusation was carried- further, and the Government dairy experts v:cre included in the general condemnation.

-"This may appear extravagant," observed Mr. fiiles,' "but I am quito, prepared to back it, or'any other statement. I nray make.; The • pollution to which 1 refer goes on daily in every State of the Commonwealth. It is repeated by those who possess the fullest knowledge o[ bacteria and their effect on the product of milk. The assertion, though at first appalling, is sufficiently serious to command the closest attention. 1 first observed this 'pollution' in Victoria' - about ten years ago, and I have since watched the same g6ins on in the great dairying States of Australia. In' Queensland I was privileged to attend what I may term 'an inquest' ou the product of a factory, where the product was supposed to have, deteriorated to'such an extent as to warrant calling in expert advice. That advice wns readily supplied by the Agricultural Department ,in the form of, a team of microbiologists, who were supposed to he able to put their 'finger on the. spot. . These experls had full control of the factory operations. I watched the proceedings, but found that those who wore, the 'braid' just as much cream-as t he-factory ■'officers had done previously. The inquest proved abortive. "I will now endeavour to prove tliaj; the greatest source of crram pollution can bo triced to the handling of the raw material. The practice in, most, if not all factories, is to weigh the cream, and then stir all the cans prior to taking samples for testing, and then to classify the grades. Has it ever occurred to you that in this simple operation the whole of the cream is more, or, less polluted? I. have seen our Government instructors start, vork in the same way, but it never occurred to them' that they .had con-taminated-th'e whole of tho cream. Hundreds, of times-I have seen' the eream-stirrer-imruersedinto cream, fit only for the. pastry, clasKaud.immediately .afterwjirds,"plunged, into the next lot, which •njight ■.'lie .first - gradp.\ This operation is repeated from oiie, can to another, irrespective pf-the .n/uality of the contents. The remedy.is simple—classify .the cream before' taki'n<* "samples, , and then take them • strictly in with ,the grade. If it is wrong'for a factory manager to pollute cream /by the introduction of bacteria., it is eruially wrong for Government instructors to omit drawing thf . attention of the manager to this phase of, injurious , innocnlntion." v .The.,s^iitiments--contained.dl , tbe' paner were largely repudiated by the delegates.

SOME FAR INLAND COUNTRY,

IN T,HE HIGHLANDS. (From Our Travelling Correspondent.) Leaving Raetihi for Pipiriki, the road winds down a long hill into the valley, where,.l saw_not..'only ,somp, paddocks full, of grass,-but also tome farm's very .short of feed. In a season like this many farmers have been caught .napping. They have been so much accustomed, to carrying a .heavy stack in the summer, intending to' dispose of the surplus in autumn, that they v have not contemplated the scarcity of feed during a dry summer as this. has been. . There are some nice hills in this valley —good sheep country. , A feiv miles on, the road rises to a saddle and another one branches off ro the left—tho Waipuna Road. It winds uphill till it reaches an altitude of 2000 feet. From hero there is-a truly magnificent viow- .On the rid/re I saw the largest tawhera trees I have ever come acTos?. some must have been fully four feet .through. . ■'• Strange to say, the soil, though ■ is very good, carrying a fine sward of grass. It grows excellent rape and turnips, and is altogether different from what is usually the case in land where there is much ta.whpra. On the 'Waipnnn the holdings are mostly lnrge. Thev need to be, , too, as it .'is not land at all suitable for small holdings. '

THE RISE IN BUTTER. ' ITS CAUSE DISCUSSED.. (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) ' . Hawera, July 4. While butter is being retailed in Wellington at Is. id., and it has been stated that the price will be put up to Is. 5d. ( this week tho figure is already Is. Cd. in Wanganui, where a prediction was made some time ago that tho price would bo reached before the winter was over. When that forecast was made the retail charge for the article was Is. 2d., so in a couple of months there has been an increase of fourpencc per pound, which represents nearly thirty per cent. It is stated ,in Wanganui that tho commodity is so scarce that several retailers have been unable to obtain small supplies, and have had to disappoint their regular customers'. Ideas in Wmigamii conflict, as to itlic cause of the high price. Some say that the butter has hceii cornered, others t!\at representative's of soiiu- big firms scoured the Wauganui and the Taranaki districts, buying iip nearly all the butter made and to bo' mad;! this winter, and others that there is simply a straight-out shortage as a result of the dry weather. A man in business in a town near W.iTiganui stated that last week he had had to nay Is. sd. per pound for butter to a factory. It is believed in Wnnganui that the "shortage" will continue to be severely felt until the new season's niako becomes available, which it is reckoned will be in about six week's time.