DAIRY MANUFACTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20985, 23 September 1931, Page 11

DAIRY MANUFACTURE.

MASSEY COLLEGE COURSES. WRONG IMPRESSIONS REMOVED. NEW FARM TRAINING POLICY. Addressing a conference of dairy factory managers last week, Mr. G. M. Valentine, dairy factory superintendent at the Massey Agricultural College, expressed regret that there had been a fall to 20 in the number of students attending the dairy department of the college, and the chairman, Mr. A. Garry, suggested that the reason was that of finance. It was unreasonable, he said, to expect youths of 17 and 18 to pay fees amounting to £SO a year for four years' tuition. In the public interest the position should be clari-fied. The winter courses arranged for youths who have adopted the manufacturing branch of the dairy industry as their career offer remarkable advantages at a very low cost. The successful student who takes the three winter courses, not four, gains a diploma which makes him an associate in dairy manufactures, and seeing that he may earn his livelihood during the nine busy months of the dairy year his position is enviable. Rapid, hut Comprehensive. A student must have worked one season in a dairy factory or have had one year's experience as a herd tester before he is qualified to commence. Each course is of 12 weeks' duration. In the first year he takes elementary physics and chemistry, genera) bacteriology, general dairying 1 and 2, and general book-keeping. The second year's syllabus comprises dairy bacteriology, dairy chemistry, dairy factory book-keeping, and butter or cheesemaking. In the third year he continues with butter or cheese-making, with the addition of tuition in oairy factory construction and management and in dairy engineering. The fees for each term total only £B, less 10s for early payment. Allowing 30s a week for board and lodging, the total cost of each term is only £25 10s, plus personal expenses. There is even a concession in railway fares. There is littlo doubt that the college is catering in generous fashion for the dairy industry and there is not likely to be a shortage of students when once factory apprentices fully realise the value of a diploma. Meeting Students' Convenience. The subject was discussed yesterday by Sir George Fowlds, chairman of the Massey Agricultural College Council. The scale of fees throughout, he said, was very low by comparison with those for other professions. Dealing particularly with the dairy diploma winter course, he explained the difficulties that had had to be surmounted, seeing that it placed a heavy tax upon the teaching sts.ff and created some congestion. But it was of the highest importance to the industry and such difficulties had to be overcome. Possibly the general economic situation had placed unusual restrictions upon intending students, but he could not think of anything more that could be done to assist them, seeing that fees were little more than nominal. He had no doubt that the advantages the course offered would ensure a flow of students adequate to the needs of the industry. Actually men employed in the business who had not had the opportunity for training of the same order, had expressed some concern over the possibility of young diploma men having an undue advantage over them and the council had been considering, almost since the college opened, some means of providing a comparable course for factory managers and submanagers. Here again there was the difficulty of added congestion during the winter term, the, only period when such men could be free. Sir George mentioned that there was dormitory accommodation for only 23 at present*, but this would be increased for 16 more shortly. Those who could not live at the college found it convenient to board in Palmerston North. The Farming Courses. Sir George took the opportunity of mentioning the courses the college offered in dairy farming and sheep farming. These occupied three terms and the total fees amounted to £l6, but the students were allowed 30s a week for the labour on the farm. It was the policy of the college 'to give to students as much practical training as possible under the experts of the staff. Without practical training there would be the danger of-turning out a purely academic type, and in this connection it had been decided to extend these farm'courses to two years unless the student could satisfy the authorities that, he had had adequate practical training on a farm before proceeding to the college. The courses would be divided into A and B sections. Both would embody practical work but the A section would contain the larger part of it. It was proposed to reduce fees to the neighbourhood of £SO a year, including (he cost of board. The college might not be getting the cost of board in return for the academic training, but a certain amount would be gained by the farm from the practical work of the students. Importance ol Practical Work. The two-year course in the two branches of farming would have a tremendous value, particularly to young men from the towns, who went straight to the college from a secondary school without having done any practical work on a farm. Obviously such men would be much more fit to manage farms of their own under this system of training than they otherwise would be. " All the college fees, including those for degree courses, are on a much lower scale than applies in the university colleges," concluded Sir George, " and one has no hesitation in commending the courses to youths and young men who wish to make farming their life work and to succeed." In regard to the diploma course in dairy manufacture it is a self-evident fact that the college is here performing a work that has become doubly important through the decline in values of the manufactured article and through the increasing com petition among dairying countries. Quality production is of paramount importance. and by providing the means for the training of future factory managers of higher qualifications tho college is serving national interests.