A VICTORIAN EXPERIMENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1405, 3 April 1912, Page 8

A VICTORIAN EXPERIMENT.

USE OF BORIC ACID IN BUTTER. Mr. Crowe, the Victorian Superintendent of Exports, has reached the final stage of an experiment for the purpose of showing whether 'butter containing boric acid reached London in a fresher slate than unprescrved butter. At a gathering of those-interested,'hold-at tho Government cool stores in Melbourne, Mr. Crowe stated that all the butter factory managers were asked to make four boxes of butter from tho ono churning, two having the usual percentage of boric acid and two without any. Fifty butter factories complied; and one box of each was shipped, by the R.M.S. Orama on January 10, and the duplicates were kept at the Government cool ' stores'. Tho Agent-General'was requested to have the butter inspected after thawing, and reported upon as to 'Telativc' quality and value. The duplicates in Melbourno were taken out of the cool store on Ferbruary 19 and officially scored on February 23. The butter was not'available' in London until February 26. The first cable message from the Agent-General on February 26 stated:—"Trade fully represented. Consensus opinion strongly in favour of retention of preservative. Details later." On March 1 the. following cable message was received:—"With reference to my telegram of February 26, butter with preservative, maximum and minimum, -10 and 10, average HAL Butter without ! preservative, maximum and minimum, -1G and '10, average -12.32. Present market value up to Bs. cwt. in favour of butter with preservative." The points quoted referred to flavour, and the possible score was HO. The avoram difference in points between the two butters in London was 2.12. The difference recorded in Melbourne as the result of the grading which took place on February 23 was 2.C points. On taking out. the It results showing the lowest differences (O.S point) between the scores awarded here for the two kinds of butter. Mr. Crowe discovered that the average boric ncid content by analysis was 0.121 per cent. The fourteen butters which showed the. greatest difference in scoring (average •1.417 points) were found to contain by analysis noarlv double, tho amount, namely 0.213 per cent, of boric acid. The average percentage of boric ncid found in the preserved butters submitted was 0.181 "per cent. It. therefore, appeared (■■hat there was a tendency to use too little preservative, and had 0.23 per cent., that is, half the maximum allowed, been employed, tho results would have, been even more striking.