DAIRY INDUSTRY COUNTRY WOMEN’S WORK

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 January 1931, Page 14

DAIRY INDUSTRY

COUNTRY WOMEN’S WORK

ACTIVITIES IN DENMARK

Details of the recommendations of the committee appointed by the Agricultural Department, of the Danish Government to study ways and means of improving and expanding the export of Danish agricultural products have reached New Zealand. The first and foremost recommendation of the committee was that butter be exported in small cartons and not as at present in large tubs. Another suggestion was that Danish butter shops be established in foreign countries. At those centres it would he possible to obtain Danish butter in original packages, while propaganda could be - disseminated at the same time. The committee also reported that )it had ascertained (that there

was an ever-increasing demand in foreign markets for butter packed in pound packages rather than sold looselv.

The committee also made suggestions whereby Danish cheese exports could be increased, especially to Great Britain, as cheese exports to that country had declined in recent years. It was recommended that Danish cheese should bo marketed through central agencies in foreign countries. It was also recommended that the control now exercised over cheese standards be extended to include taste, appearance and wrapping, and that a new standard trademark be adopted. In addition to these suggestions, the committee stated that it would be advisable to confine the export cheeses to a limited number of standard qualities, and that new machinery be installed at the Danish State research dairy to enable that dairy to experiment with teh re-melting of cheese.

USE OF SURPLUS

The committee also considered the possibility of using the constantly increasing surplus of milk which has been noted during the last few years. In 1913 condensed milk exports from [Denmark amounted to 4,409,203’1b5, whereas in 1929 1 these exports reached a total of 52,910,4001 b. The ipilk exports from Holland, however, have increased considerably more than those from Denmark. It was suggested that local trade representatives should be appointed in various places and that stocks of Danish condensed milk lie maintained in important market centres so that an uninterrupted supply could lie assured.

SCOTTLSH INST IT UTE

The Scottish Women’s Rural Institute movement is, in the opinion of Sir Robert Greig, Secretary to the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, the most promising social development which has ever occurred in Scotland, says the “Daily Express.”

He made this statement to more than 1,090 delegates at the annual conference held in the Playhouse, Inverness last month, presided over by Mrs. Anstruther Gray, chairman of the Central Council.

Sir Robert Greig said if they could only have similar institutes for men, the spirit of Scotland might he recovered and the face of Scotland changed. Sir Robert said that his department had a small but esential share in the beginning of the movement, and there was no success of the Department of Agriculture in which he took more satisfaction than in the success o! Scottish Women’s Rural Institutes.

They in the department had to deal with universities and colleges and research stations, but the institutes had to deal with the fifth and greatest of all the Scottish universities —namely, what Barrie called “The poor, proud homes of Scotland”

It was in that university that character was built up and where lessons were given and received which had made, and they hoped would continue to make, the sons and daughters of Scotland a welcome force in every part of the world.

“The institute movement,” said Sir Robert, “has shown what a wealth of buried talent the fifth university contains. Through the institutes we have discovered a reservoir of varied a ini lity that is gradually irrigating the dull and dry areas of Scotland,

“The institutes have permitted self expression to many a one who would not otlierwi.se have realised that happiness.” They had provided, lie continued, the stimulus which had released the energy which was ready to give and receive in comradeship and good will. Who would have believed that rural Scotland would have shown such appreciation of music, of the drama, of the arts, and crafts?

Sir Robert, proceeding, said they wpukl he interested to learn that the annual egg production of Caithness was considerably greater than the annual agricultural valuation.

Orkney was the star county, for it produced four times the annual valuation of the county. If the Scottish women could induce the Scottish people to consume as much milk per head as the Swedes, every one would need to turn “dairyman, as under our present system of farming there was not enough land in Scotland to keep the cows to produce enough milk to let Scotland have as much as the Swedes used.