New Zealand Dairies.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7404, 20 September 1902, Page 2

New Zealand Dairies.

That there U some room for improvement in tho inspection of dairies in New Zealand is apparent from the annual report of the Agricultural Department. The Chief Veterinarian states that as regards dairies supplying towns, a general measure of improvement has been brought nbout and maintained as a consequence of the enforcement of the Dairying Industry Act, but the country dairies, i.e., those supplying factories and creameries, are in a very largo (icrcentage ol ca*es in a more or less dirty and insanitary condition.

In such a district as for instance, Taranaki, with a heavy rainfall and a scarcity of gravel and other material for paviug, there is some excuse for yards during tho winter being in a muddy state on farms whose owners are not over-burdened with spare capital. Even granting this, however, there is commonly exhibited a most lamentable iack of care in the handling of nilk in ihc shed itself. If the yard b.-- unavoidably dirty in wot woather, there is no reason why the cows should not be milked in a properly floored and clean shed, or that the milkers should not make it their object to keep themselves as clean as possible compatible with the conditions under which they work, or that the utensils—-milk buckets, cans, strainer', etc.—should not be immaculately clean, Were the rules of cleanliness more carefully observed one would hear les3 of "fishy " and inferior quality butter. In this matter of supervision of dairiies, with the periodical inspection of cows for disease, it seems regrettable that the services of the veterinary officers in the department cannot be more fully utilised. Trained as they are, in the hygiene of dairy premises, as well as the diseases of animals, they alone aro likely to give confidence to the dairy farmer, and frra knowledge of general diseases other than those injurious from the view-point of public health, their vjsits of inspection should more likely be welcomed than shunned by the struggling settler. This is a reform that the Chief Veterinarian thinks should be no longer delayed. Some years ago Mr Gilravh recommended, a< an urgent ujeasirre to safeguard the public health, that owners of cows should repprt pase§ of diseq.se of the udder. There could, he adds, be no excuse tor non-compliance with such a regulation, which is in the interests of the public health us woll as of the dairy industry.