SKIMMINGS.

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 55

SKIMMINGS.

It is impossible to make first-class butter cut of bad-smelling or dirty milk.

In many New Zealand factories managers do not realise their responsibility in regard to the quality of the produce, and m ake no effort to get the support of the directors in refusing milk. »O» ~ • a

A milk supplier, if lie would act fairly to himself and Ids neighbour, would bring no .milk either to the factory or creamery which, ho would not be willing to drink himself. » » a o B

Give the cows such food and water only as would be good enough for yourself. You don’t want to eat sour, mouldy, rotten food, or drink dirty water. Such food will net keep a cow healthy, nor make nice, sweet butter that you would like to eat or be proud that it came from your factory. * * * w e

Practical lectures on dairying are to be given during the coming winter evenings at the Government Cool Stores, Melbourne. The lectures are to be delivered by Mr 11. W. Potts, the wellknown chemist and dairy expert. A complete laboratory is to be installed in order to allow Mr Cron- to make practical demonstrations in dairying chemistry. Special tuition will be given to those engaged in the daily household milk delivery. * * * * *

The principal objection raised by the dairymen of Victoria against the introduction of Government grading cf dairy produce is that no grader could determine with any degree of certainty when examining butter in Melbourne what the condition of the butter will be when it reaches Great Britain. There is at the present time in Victoria a classification of butter into two classes ■ —“approved for export” and “pastry.” With this grading the Victorian dairyman appears to be eminently satisfied.

Charles M. Buckwork, Whakatane, has been endeavouring to introduce a brand for cheese which he has patented. The brand is impressed into the end of the cheese. The principal advantage of the patent is its indelibility, it being indented fully a quarter of an inch into the cheese. Tho disadvantage is that the branding in this manner causes a slight loss in each cheese. Similar brands have been tried in Canada, but the trade strongly objects to them on account of tho disfiguration of tho clieeso which results. Another consideration in branding cheese indelibly is that the reputation of the colony’s cheese would suffer if all grades were branded alike, and this is just what would take place if the brand in question were adopted as the brand would be applied when the cheese was being made, and before an independent judge, such as a grader, had an opportunity of determining its quality. Altogether the idea is not to be commended. • •••(.

Particulars of an interesting decision in a case relating to the use of boracic acid in butter are to band. It was an appeal by a firin of butter merchants against the decision of a Folkestone Bench of Magistrates, by which a fine was inflicted under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. The appeal was heard before the recorder (Mr Lewis Coward) at the Folkestone Quarter Sessions, who decided that the bulk of the evidence was not opposed to the use of boraqio acid in butter in small quanti-

ties, and accordingly quashed the conviction, with costs.

In an official communication dated Ist November, Air J. M. Sinclair, the agent in London for the Department of Agriculture, reports having recently 1 given evidence before the British But- ! ter Regulations Committee with regard ! to the Victorian methods of dairying and exportation. The committee in question was appointed by the Beard of Agriculture in London to inquire and report as to what regulations might be made for determining what deficiency in any cf the normal constituents of butter, or what addition of extraneous ' matter, in any sample of butter, shouldraise a presumption that, the butter was not genuine for the purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act. The particular point- .upon which Mr Sinclair gave evidence was as to the proportion cf water to bo allowed in butter, and he stated 15 per cent, as the maximum which might exist- in the butter without detriment. to the product. The Victorian average ia said to be 12 per cent, of water, and ihe Now Zealand average 10 per cent.—-Melbourne “Leader.” * * » m *

Mr 11. Small has been appointed milktester for the Otaki-Manakau Dairy Company. Mr Small secured two firstclass certificates in practical chemistry and a first-class in agricultural chemistry at the Lincoln Agricultural College, so that- he ought to be able to master the intricacies of the Babcock tester, a * * » »

The following figures in connection with the December returns of the Awahuri Dairy Factory show a- splendid increase on the returns for the corresponding month of 1900:—-Weight of milk received, 824,0921 b, as against 592,8921 b; amount paid to suppliers, £lllO 15s Bd. against- £764 11s lid; highest, test for the month. 4.1; lowesttest, 3.5; number of suppliers, 40, as against- 31. Mr VaJdemar has been appointed assistant manager of the factory. * 4 « O •

At a. meeting cf settlers at the Ihuraua Valley School (Masterton district), called for the purpose of establishing a creamery, a resolution in favour of amalgamation with the Masterton Dairy Company, “if the conditions offered are agreed to,” was lost, and a- motion was carried in favour of joining the N.Z. Farmers’ Dairy Union. * * * * •

One of the most successful co-opcra-tivo dairying concerns in the colony is the Midhirst- Company. Ten years ago the factory was started as a proprietary concern, and three years later the settlers took it, over on a co-operative basis. Since then it has enjoyed a prosperous career, and its development is almost unique. Six creameries are now contributing to the central factory, and the output- is one of the largest in the color, 9 * • « •

The latest London market report to hand states that- butter at the time of writing (December 13th), was very flat, stocks in hand were large, and with big shipments coming forward prices would have to go lower before a better tone set in. Cheese, however, showed a good improvement, especially coloured cheese, which was in short supply.