THE BOOM IN BUTTER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9261, 8 January 1907, Page 6

THE BOOM IN BUTTER.

REVIEW OF THE TRADE.

DAIRYMEN HUSTLING.

Although the new year brings us right into the midst of the butter season, instead of 'bringing us to the balancingup period, as it does with many other industries, yet theTe is something to be said about butter even now. Everybody (says the Auckland Star) must have heard by now of the great progress that the butter people axe making. It is almost begun to be suspected that there is more buried gold th? top soil of a dairy leasehold than in the richest freehold in the whole of the Hauraki gold fields in spite of their 4000 mike of depth. Dairying is often spoken of as the most moneymaking thing going on in our colony just now, and it is a business that is easily got into by a competent cow man. Wheira land can be got on eaay tenancies, where cows can bs> obtained on the time-pay-ment, system by arrangement with factory directors, and where the existence of these factories ] essens the necessary outlay for biuvter-making appliances, it is easy bo plunge into dairy farming. We of the cities can rub our hands together witii satisfaction as we watch the growth of this industry that is helping to make New Zealand prosperous, and filling, as it must do. our own cosh boxes too.

Down on the railway wharf at Auckland in a wing of .the Farmers' Freezing Works, Mr A. A. Thornton, the Govcirnm-ent grader, has been o. busy man this season. That the season which ends on March 31st next has up to now been a rocord one for volume of exports is common knowledge, ana there is yet no abatement of the *boom. The brief spell of dry weathea. which threatened to reduce the feed lias given place to welcome rains, and the arrivals of he*vy butter cargoes ' at the . grading depot will no doubt go on for some time co conns.

lha next shipmemt will be despatched from Onehunga for England (via WeJ lington) on January 12. Africa is beginning also to share the shipments in considerable quantities, the route being vda Sydney. The consignments from individual dairymen are in numbers, and in

some instances the quality is good. There are, of course, some parcels in which defects are very noticeable. Amid the rough surroundings of a farm dairy, as against the white-washed .cleanness of a dairy factory, the farmer must necessarily find it difficult to keep the outsides of the cases spotless. In this particular, the contrast between fami and factory cases on the grading floors is very distinct. The stencil marks again are sometimes not put on wnh that incisive neatness which is a feature of the typical New Zealand buttefr box. In these hurried day 6, the hasty slapping on of the stencil mark is likely J to be always a strong temptation. But even in so small a matter as this one of branding, neatness pays. Inside the boxes, too, cheap paper, when used, announces its cheapness immediately the lid comes oil, and' the buying agent at the other side of the world will some day, perhaps, assume that, the butter itself is also of a "cheap" kind. But the worst feature of all is the sight of butteT oozing out tJhrough the joints at the corners of the boxes. This resvilts from heat in courseof transit from dairy to grading Toom, or during temporary storage en route. It is a bad feature. Apart from the injury to the- butter's quality, one likes to be able to handle a box of butter without getting a bold grease mark down the knee ot on the sleeve of one's five-guinea suit.

But these defects are, after all, very rare, and are probably perptrated only by new suppliers who have not yet got quite into the run of things. These only need to pay one visit to the. grading Tooms, and have one talk with that rare enthusiast, Mr Thornton, to see where the fault comes, and correct it.