FUTURE OF INDUSTRIES LIES WITH FACTORIES

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 99, 30 April 1935, Page 4

FUTURE OF INDUSTRIES LIES WITH FACTORIES

Dairy Company Managers in '- ' e Conference [WORK OF DAIRY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Tho fourth annual gathering of dairy factory managers and first assistants opened' at Massey College yesterday ■under the auspices of the Dairy Research Institute. Delegates are present from factories all over the North Island and there is every indication that it will be as successful a conference as has been held in other years. At these gatherings, as Dt, Ik ilarsden, secretary of tho Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, put it, managers can. discuss the problems of the industry freo from tho worries of their work and the dictates of company directors.

Wh#n welcoming the delegates, Dr. Marsden pointed out that while the general teaching of agriculture was the work of Massey College, there was a special need to discuss with managers direct, such endeavours as had been made to find solutions to research problems. No industry like the dairy industry could be run unless every unit was playing its part in the application of new knowledge and so it was only with the help of the managers that the industry could go forward.

The whole future of the industry lay in the hands of the factories — ■She managers were the only people who could make up for any deficiency on the producers’ side. s*or that reason Dr. Marsden stressed the need’of co-operation between factories —it was the only way progress could be made. Whatever change might take place as Tegards marketing, it was the quality of the produce that told xa thg long run. The Dairy Research Institute had -no hand in marketing, but had a lot to do with improvements in the quality, of butter and cheese. ,Dr. Marsden also referred to the suggestion in tho report of the Dairy Commission that district laboratories might[bS established [with advantage. Nothing had been done as yet, but a meeting was to be held next month Mien consi.dern.tipn .would be given to thfe nxafrt.eD ........ •

Dairy Board’s Part Mr T. C. Brash, secretary of the Dairy Produce Board, expressed his delight at seeing the conference «1 managers continued again. ; a.s it was fulfilling a great need. The Dairy Board came-into, the .gathering,in-that it was the medium' through which the industry contributed a certain amount of finance for carrying out research. He mentioned that there was a need for even greater monetary help and pomhad out that the managers were in a, wonderful position to- disseminate news of what the institute was doing. He was sorry no South Island representatives were present and concluded.by urging delegates • not to lose their, hunger .for knowledge. ’ ‘ . ....

"What Institute is I>oing Professor Eiddet directed attention tb the functions of the Dairy Research Insti-tote which was intended to find new knowledge and new" facts. There was ai wide distinction between research. work and straight-forward laboratory work which was service work. The research worker’s job was to get new facts for the industry. One can.it expect one to give service to the in-, dusflry and at the same time take part in. difficult research work. Some research workers 7 'spent a whole lifetime without finding what they went after. ■’They accumulated knowledge, however. Dairy problems were very difficult indeed and it would take many years to overcome the problems on which more information was needed. The research worker also tried to work out new

methods that would influence the cost o£ production and modify manufacture. Professor Eiddet mentioned that the Institute bad been going since January, 3j&29, and stated that without a dairy fiaotory it would have been absolutely impossible to give, complete service to tire industry. A certain, amount could ibe done in the laboratory but before one could be certain as to what was going to happen, especially with butter and cheese, it was essential to carry the experiments to the factory stage, time and again work which had turned oot satisfactory in the laboratory, had panned opt quite differently in the torv. A great deal of progress * had been made but! it had necessarily been

slow for the reason that one day’s resalts were often not the same as the Host day’s and one week’s not the same as that of the previous week. It was because of the extremely complicated nature of butter and cheese that these things happened. During the past live years the Institute had turned more and more to what might be termed fundamental studies of dairying. Eecounting the activities of the IuEtitfute, Professor Eiddet said the major cheese problem had been openness. The various popular theories had been tested; "Work of a fundamental nature had also been in progress on the same problem and more of it would have to ibe done. Openness in cheese was a much more difficult problem than the man in the street believed. Another problem tackled .had . been discolouration of cheese, while the. .short era of standardised cheese had given them much, to do. Work had also been done in maturing cheese, cheese starters, chemical changes in manufacture,' and devising a reasonable method of estimating the casein content of cheese milk so that it might bo paid for according to its cheesemaking content. As regards butter, particular attention had been paid to flavours, starters, End keeping quality in relationship to eeidity of cream. Wrapping materials had also- been investigated as well as methods of treating timber to reduce timbor-taint to a minimum, Types of ibntfter boxes had been tried out to diseovor their relation to the growth of moulds. jf Steps had also been taken to discover what could be done as regards the manufacture of ghee for the Indian market.