THEPUKEKURA BUTTER FACTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7914, 5 April 1887, Page 3

THEPUKEKURA BUTTER FACTORY.

Oe late, when so few products of the farm can be grown at a profit, the oheene and bacoD factories have proved themselves the mainetay of settlement in Waikato. A certain and a ready-monsy market for milk has been brought almost t5 the settlers' doors, and the result ham been not only a direct gain to the milk producer himself, but indirectly to the residents of the several local centres, amongst whom some thousands of pounds per annum are circulated, which never would have been brought; into the Waikato ac all but for the cheese and butter exported, The grass consumed in their manufacture would otherwise have been used in the growth of beef, which ia aotoriously as often produced at a direct losa is at a profit. The latest of the factories which has been 3rected is that built by Mr, Heury Rey-" lolds last spring on his Fukekura estate, md is purely and simply a butter factory. VI r. Reynolds felt that in the Auckland narket there would be found a steiidy and ■egular sale for butter of a really first-clasa juality, and this requirement has been fullynet by the Pukekura factory. Just as the actory cheese displaced the produce of iniividual efforts, much of which, could be '.alled "cheese" only by courtesy, with an irticle of uniform excellence, so is the butter actory doing now, and a well-favoured, ihoroughly cleaned butter of uniform quality, that will keep and travel, is beipg iurued out, and must as surely displace all )ut the better brands of private rnan'afad;ure, and especially so in Auckland. .Even n the country towns' themselves it has been lifficult to procure butter of good flavour md of firm consistency in summer, but ;he butter factory is working a similar 'evolution to that worked by the cheese : actory a few years ago, and with profit to ill concerned. The factory under notice ia low turning out a little more than half a ton )f butter weekly, the milk supply having : allen off, on account of the dry weather, to ihout 350 gallons daily. It is made up in pound and half-pound pieces, and packed in aoxes and keg?, and disposed of almost as juickly as made, a very small stock being m hand in the underground storeroom when ,'tmr correspondent visited the premises. The main building is of concrete, and fitted ip with every modern appliance. The milk s received at the platform, and weighed— ;here are some thirteen suppliers among the leighbouring settlers. A sample of each lupjplier s milk is daily tested, and all milk 'ejected, which does not come up to 10 per :ent. of cream—as a matter of fast, the iverage is nearly 12 per cent. It is then )laced in a large 400-gallon vat, enclosed ia in outer casing of wood, and tho aperture jetween the two is rilled with steam from ;he engine until tho milk has reached a ;emperature of SO degrees, when it is passed m to the separator, one supplied from the Danish firm of Burmeister and Wain. These machines possess many advantages over the jrdinary separator, effecting a eaving of iime, at less wear and tear, and leaving it Impossible for the nicest test Iβ find a particle of cream in the skim milk. JN'ot the east useful and interesting feature of the Burmeister and Wain separator ia the fact that the entire working of the process of separation of the cream is open to observation. The drum, which is something like in inverted cone, though it takes three strong men to lift it, turns on a point not more than a quarter of an inch in size, bedded in a socket filled with oil, and making 2000 revolutions a minute; The milk and cream may be seen gathered into a standing nail around the inner surface of Lha drum, tha cream being thrown by jentrifugal face upon the inner surface or "ace of the wall of milk, the one being rua >ff by one, the other by another pipe. The jream is tfcen received into a refrigerator, when it U reduced to the proper temperaiure for the churn, which, in the case of ;he Pukekura factory, is a large box chnrn, ;apable of holding 150 gallons. The sepa •ator can, if required, put through about 147 gallons of milk per, hour, but for ordinary use is run at a speed to treat about 110 gallons per hour. The butter, when taken, from the churn, is then removed to the Dacking-up room, which is fitted up with svery convenience for the cleaning of the jutter and pressing out aIJ water, and thence ;o the underground storeroom. The whole >f the machinery is worked with a vertical r our horse-power engine. Ass in other fac;oriee, the skim milk is run off into a vat, whence it is conveyed to the piggeries at lome distance; also to the oalvea yard, for ;Jie rearing of calves has been tven more argely gone into than the keeping of pigs, v t one time, in the early part of the season, ta many as 120 calves wsre being reared, ,heir number being replaced by others as ihey became fit for weaning. An ingenious ioctrivance has been made for feeding the leifer calves. There are 35 little cow bales n a row down one of the sheds. In front >f each bale a long trough runs, into which ,he skim milk is poured, and each calf to, ;et its food, has to be baled up. The habit laving been once acquired, these animals, vhen grown up, will be already broken ia :o the bale. There are only ten acres of and connected with the factory, on whioh itands also a substantially-built house reiently put up for the manager. The Pukecura property was originally 900 acres, but it the time the factory went up last spring Vlr. Reynolds sold all the land on the same iide of the road as the factory—some 400 teres— to four new settlers, Messrs. Kilgour, Crewin, Hughes, and Harris, all of whom iave erected comfortable residences on their arms, and are regular suppliers of milk to ;he factory. It oould be wished that the iame enterprise which led Mr. Reynolds to he establishment of this butter factory were nore generally diffused, for both oheesa ind butter, of such quality as our factories mm out, there is a ready sale and a fair narket, and, built and carried on by private snterprise, unlike those undertaken by joint itock companies, there is no waste or exravagant expenditure, and they are not inly a blessing to the farmers of the sur•ouricSing district, but a source of profit to he individual proprietors.