THE BUTTER INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8483, 6 February 1891, Page 5

THE BUTTER INDUSTRY.

THE OPINIONS OP AN EXPERT. Shortly before the opening of the Dunedin Exhibition the New Zealand Government employed Mr. Sawer as an expert in dairy 'ng matters for the purpose of instructing the dairy farmers in New Zealand in the most improved modern methods in thab industry. Though the North possesses the larger number of cows in the colony, the New Zealand Government stationed the expert, paid from the general taxation of the colony, not where there were to be found the largest number of cows, and where in consequence the expert might have been expected to be most useful, but hi the South Island. There he has remained ever since, and to all appearance is likely to remain. During the last month or twp, however, Mr. A. Dons, a Dane, has been eneaged as an assistant expert in the dairy business, and during the greater portion of Mr. Dons' service he has been employed in the Taranaki and Waimate districts. There the dairy industry is chiefly carried on by individual effort, and very few associated concerns are to be found. In consequence of this want of concentration, Mr. Dons had to go from one farmhouse to another, and instruct each farmer in turn, and learn the method each worker pursued. This was naturally a somewhat slow process, and delayed Mr. Dons' visit to the Auckland district. In an interview with Mr. Dons we learned that the system in use in Taranaki and Waimate districts is one that does not meet with his approval. While individual effort is pursued so exclusively as it is in Taranaki, it will bo impossible to meet one of the main requirements of modern trade, the production of large quantities of such an even and uniform quality in flavour and appearance. A variety of manufacture, Mr. Dons is of opinion, will always tend to depress prices, and will never command the highest prices going, because any exceptionally good make will be lost sight of in a large quantity of inferior, and the quantity will be so small as to have no effect upon the trade of the large firms who generally handle dairy products in the large towns in Britain. This system of individual effort was long carried on in Denmark, to the great injury of the farmer's finances, and it is only since the system of universal co-operation which is now in vogue in thab country, and the manufacture of butter confined to a few establishments, where the highest skill and best appliances are employed, that the Danish butter has attained such an honorable position in the British markets as it now occupies. He thinks that until better and more appliances are obtained, and more concentrated efforts gcnnerally made, the Taranaki and Waimate butter will never occupy its proper position. As Mr. Dons' speciality is butter, and Mr. Sawer's cheese-making, Mr. Dons has confined his attention to the butter industry in the North Island, and the conditions under which the manufacture is carried on. He sends a report every week to his chief, and a report monthly to the Government. As to the conditions under which butter is made in Auckland and Taranaki, he is decidedly in favour of those obtaining in Auckland. In many parts of the southern parts of the North Island, the water supply for the cattle, and the supply of water for working up tho butter, is nob quite to Mr. Dons's liking. In many instances, ho thinks, a mineral element exists in the water, which affects unfavourably the very delicate flavour of good butter. The pastures in the southern portion of the North Island are, in his opinion, too new, rank, and coarse, and the herbage they produce does not impart that flavour to butter which older and sweeter pastures do. He also found that many of the milch cows there often rambled off into the standing bush and scrub, and apparently they partook of plants which will require to be withheld from them before butter is produced of the delicate flavour which belongs to the Danish article. In this respecc Auckland, he says, has a great advantage over Taranaki. Here the pastures are older, more consolidated, and produce sweeter feed for the animals which feed upon them. He also found the water hero superior to that on the West Coast, but thinks the heat here, especially at night, is too great, unless appliances are used for the production of an artificial climate. In Auckland he found the appliances used in the butter-making industry, both at the New Zealand Dairy Association's works and Messrs. Reynolds and Co.'s, far in advance of anything to be found in the South ; indeed in this respect Mr. Dons says Auckland is at least seven to eight years ahead of all tho Southern dairying districts. For the production of really good butter in New Zealand. Mr. Dons is of opinion that great care will require to bo paid to our pastures, and these extended sufficiently to prevent cattle eating native shrubs when pastures are bare, either in tho summer or winter seasons. In regard to pastures he thinks New Zealand with her equable climate, has a great advantage over Denmark. In Denmark cows have to bo stall fed for several months every year, when lar^e quantities of oil cake and other artificial feed has to be given to thorn, and in many instances this is rancid, and imparts a disagreeable flavour to the butter, which of course reduces its quality. Of all the feed which can be given bo milch cows he thinks nothing can beat rich grass and clover, from well-cared-for and matured pastures. The most perfect cleanliness in the preparation of butter, and in the handling of milk, is absolutely necessary to produce a high class article. This he found was not so much attended to on small farms as it should be. He also thought that, in the North Island a command of ice or some means of producing artificial cold was necessary. In this respect Denmark had a great advantage over New Zealand, for there large quantities of ice were stored up in the winter season at small cost, which proved exceeding serviceable in the summer time. Ho also thought butter in New Zealand was kept too long before being packed — should always be packed for export at least on the second day after manufacture. The Auckland butter had a remarkably clean and pleasantjtaste, but did not possess that rich mild flavour which the best Danish had. He thought the flavour of butter never was very marked in countries where the temperature rose high. He was also of opinion thab the Auckland dairy workers, with the exception of the New Zealand Dairy Association, ripened their cream too much, and the temperature of the cream should be reduced to the temperature of water within a few minutes after being extracted from the milk, as at the Pukekohe factory. The same treatment should bo applied to the milk as soon as drawn from the cow, as by this means all animal odours were more effectually driven away than by any other method. During his stay in Auckland he had visited all the factories connected with the New Zealand Dairy Association and Messrs. Reynolds and Co. So far as he had seen, ho thought all parts of the Auckland district had equal facilities for the production of good butter. Pastures were everywhere good, and the water was excellent and abundant. Some of Messrs. Reynolds and Co.'s factories were as yet incomplete, and needed improvements, and some of those were being done and others contemplated. He looked upon Ngaruawahia as a splendid place for buttermaking, and considered this factory as the best of all under the charge of Messrs. Reynolds and Co. In taking Danish butter as a standard of comparison he had not found any New Zealand butter in his opinion equal to ib in flavour. .The heat of the climate might affect the flavour somewhat, but ho thought buttermakers hero used too much water in washing their butterthey washed much of the flavour out of ib. No doubb bhe warm climabe required more water for washing purposes than would be necessary in a colder climate, bub he thought that even here less water might be used after a little practice by more thoroughly working the cream. With careful attention to cooling by artificial means, with tho splendid climate and the good pastures, ho did not see any reason why, wit!) care and attention, the flavour should not be very considerably increased. To provide a large profitable export of butter from New Zealand, the large factory system which was in operation in Auckland would have to be adopted everywhere. One consignment of butter must be alike to that which preceded ib under bhe same brand, if bhe trade was to be [profitable for the farmers and manufacturers. This could not be done except under the large factory system, which had , been so thoroughly adopted in Denmark,

thab all private butter-making had ceased in that country. Small farmers should take more care of milk than they did now, and the system of cooling the milk immediately after being drawn from the cow should be univerally attended to. The refrigerator should be in use on every farm when milch cows were kept for dairy factory purposes. He quite approved of the system of testing the milK from the contents of cream which was in use in the New Zealand Dairy Association's offices, as ib was only by some such plan, upon which perfect reliance could be placed, thab the standard of butter-producing milk could be raised. With proper skill and care, and the use of the necessary modern appliances', he looked upon the future of New Zealand as a butterproducer with the greatest confidence.