AMONG OTAGO CHEESEMAKERS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 44

AMONG OTAGO CHEESEMAKERS

WORK OF THE DAIRY COMMIS- ( STONER. The Dairy Commissioner, Mr J. A; Kin-, sella, has just returned from a tour of inspection around the cheese factories of the South Island. The principal reason, for Mr visit at the present season of the year was to see liow the makers were working- when contending against the greatest difficulties of their business- -the natural conditions of midsummer—ami to see bow they were following out his instructions imparted at the classes of instruction held last winter at the Wyndham Dairy Factory, Otago. Some of the makers, when attending the classes, had expressed the hope that the Commissioner would visit them at a time when they had to meet difficulties in manufacture which were not present when working with winter milk, and to these men Mr Kinsella’s visit was heartily welcome. Before visiting the factories Mr Kinsella inspected several shipments of cheese both at Dunedin and the Bluff, principally in order to acquaint himself with the defects noticeable in flavour and mechanical details. After a lengthy visit to the Otago and Southland factories, several days being spent with some makers, the Commissioner found that the average quality showed an improvement over that of last year, though there was still a. considerable advance to be made by makers, particularly in the direction of uniformity. Several of the smaller factories showed a wonderful improvement over their work of previous -seasons, and this was all the more noticeable with factories where the instruction given at Wyndham, more particularly in. connection with the preparation of pure cultures, had been carefully carried out. Mr Kinsella found that some makers were using starters—at times too old, and again carelessly prepared—which were doing more harm than good. It was gratifying to find that the most noticeable improvement was made by the younger men in the business, men who, with little experience, carried out the Commissioner’s instructions to the letter, botli in regard to manufacturing details and in the preparation of the starter. On the other hand Mr Kinsella noticed that the most serious mistakes were made by the older makers, men who had either refused to profit by the instructions of the expert or else had followed them in a half-hearted manner. A pleasant circumstance was that the: Commissioner did not come across a single case of a “pasty” cheese, a defect which was common in the Otago output of last season. With reference to the starter question, Mr Kinsella is firmly convinced that the culture for preparing the starter—the foundation of the starter proper—should be prepared at a central point by a properly qualified man, preferably the Government chemist, to be then distributed to the makers of the colony. Mr Kinsella holds that if this system was followed it would be the means of securing uniformity in the dairy produce of the colony. Owing to some complaints which have been made in connection with “old season’s” butter, (butter shipped to London, at the beginning of a season but manufactured during the previous season), Mr. Kinsella made a point of meeting the directorates of several Otago factories, with a view to getting them to ship their butter directly after manufacture, instead of storing it during the winter months. The Commission er claims that storing butter for four or five months and then shippins it to cateli the spring market is one of the greatest evils of the butter industry, tiecause of the fact that the butter deteriorates during cold storage, to a greater or lesser extent An experiment in this connection was made last year. A line of butter which was stored as first grade on arrival at the cool stores from the factory was tried again when being shipped Home, after being five months in cold storage, when it was found to be stale and-“'tel-, lowy,” with the result that it had to be-re-classed as second-grade. V Mr Kinsella impressed the importance of immediate ) shipment upon tlie director® he' metl' a T ldq H using the argument with them' that/' even supposing the butter did not show any great deterioration, when exposed for'sale on the London, counter it was very .liable to go “off,” a fact which would tell, greatly against the reputation of. the- brand' with the London trade. A

During' liis Southern visit the Dairy Commissioner succeeded in removing the dissatisfaction which has existed in certain quarters in Otago in regard to the method of checking the weights of cheese by the Government grader, and which dissatisfaction was rather warmly ventilated at the Dairying Conference held in Dunedin in dp- 11 ® last. The president and secretary of the Sovitli Island National Dairy As-; sociation inspected the system followed by the grader and expressed themselves as quite satisfied. A number of makers had also visited the grading, stores, with the result that greater confidence has been, inspired among certain men who* were formerly dissatisfied. It was pleasing to Mr Kinsella to find that the work of'the Sonth Island graders was generally giving great satisfaction. i.-,-* • • • ; - Altogether Mr .inspection . of South Island cheese factories—those on

Banks Peninsula were inspected as well as those of Otago—should have a beneficial effect upon tho general character of South Island cheese,, which has certainly been the effect of his work in tnat direction in the past.