MILK-TESTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9721, 17 January 1895, Page 3

MILK-TESTING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In consequence of the difficulties with which we have been met this season, I have thought it well to have the whole of our manufacturing operations inspected and reported upon, by a thoroughly qualified dairy expert. I, therefore, sent for, and obtained the assistance of, Mr. Herman Olesen, a gentleman of European reputation, who has been selected to represent the Laval Cream-Separator Company, in Australasia. I did this in our own interests, and for the purpose of discovering weak spots in our methods. In company with Mr. Petersen, the Laval Company's mechanical expert, Mr. Olesen made an exhaustive examination of our plant and manner of operations. This included an inquiry into the actual work of sampling and testing. Your readers who have followed the recent correspondence in your columns will be interested in the portion of the report which I now ask you to publish, I want your readers to remember that Mr. Olesen's abilities, information, and reputation enable him to hold the position of dairy expert for the Laval Company, which is, probably, one of the foremost institutions in the world in everything relating to dairying. I also want them to remember that he and his assistant examined everything for themselves during the time when the creameries, factory, and testing-room were at their ordinary work. I hardly need say that such testimony, coming from such an authority, affords me very great satisfaction. Mr. Olesen writes :—" I have much pleasure in stating that I found them" (the creameries) "all in the hands of good managers, carefully working them • with great interest, as well for the Association as for the milk-suppliers. I may say I have seldom met with a more intelligent, and, for their daily work, more interested staff of managers than you are happy enough to have in your factory and creameries. I took- special care in investigating the way of sampling the milk, as I have seen some complaints in the papers regarding this matter. As far as I could see during my visit to the different places, the performing of this important part of the daily work was made in a way leaving all doubt of an unfair sampling out of the question, and I cannot see how you can improve upon the arrangement for taking the milk sample. I also inspected the testing performed in your place in Auckland, and 1 am obliged to highly commend the gentleman in charge df this department.—l am, dear sir, yours faithfully (signed), Herman Olesen, Dairy Expert for De Laval Cream-Separator Company." Thanking you for the insertion of this letter, I am, etc., Wesley Spragg, Manager New Zealand Dairy Association.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, — need hardly, I think, answer Mr. Spragg's " ridiculous" question after his apology for making it, still lest he should misinterpret my silence I may tell him that I struck the average by taking into consideration the different quantities brought by each supplier, and not in the " rough and ready" way alluded to by Mr. Spragg.— Yours faithfully, S. Goss.