BUTTER MAKERS OF THE FUTURE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1613, 28 January 1903, Page 63

BUTTER MAKERS OF THE FUTURE

THEIR ABILITIES AND KNOWLEDGE FORECASTED. (Paper read at flie Convention of the National Creamery Buttermgkers* Assoeiation of St. Paul. D.S.A.) It may he somewhat difficult to predict what will he required of the butterinaker of the future, as nohody knows what the future will bring or require, hut it is necessary to make predictions about the fixture for the purpose of being prepared for the coming events and requirements. We can do this with reasonable accuracy because the future will likely be according to our views and predictions; in other words, the future will be what we make it. If we have high ideas about the future and predict that it will bring a higher type of man, men better educated and better qualified for their vocations, we will educate ourselves and our children according to those ideas, and in this way we will help to mould the man, the ideas, the requirements, and progress of the future to a very large extent. As the years pass by and the creamery industry advances, more and more good butter will be made, and the standard of good butter will rise accordingly. The manufacturing process of good butter will also be conducted more on scientific principles. in order to ensure better quality

and more uniformity. This will again require better buttermakers —men of more education and scientific learning. The time when a few months' apprenticeship in a creamery, with possibly a short course at a dairy school was considered ample training for a buttermaker is rapidly changing, and but few creameries of to-day are willing to employ such inexperienced men and pay for their experience in a low grade of butter or a run-down creamery. Some of our creameries stand idle today on account of employing cheap, inexperienced buttermakers, and many others have bad “costly experience” by employing unqualified buttermakers. In the future such men will stand but little chance of getting positions in wellmanaged creameries, no matter liow cheaply they may oiler tlieir services. r Jiie requirements of the future wiii undoubtedly be" that the buttermaker shall know his business from beginning to end; know how to set. operate, and even repair tlie machinery in the creamery; know the difference between good and poor niiik; know the difference between good, fair, and poor butter, and know how to make good butter. This means that he must knew how to prepare a good starter, ripen the cream, churn the butter, and know when the cream is in pi;oper condition to churn. To do this he must be familiar with the acid test, tlie Babcock test, the composition of milk and its products, and many oilier things which the buttermaker of to-dav ought to know, and which the buttermaker of tlie future will be required to know. What education and training should the buttermaker of the future ; eeeivo m order that he* may be fully able to fulfil these requirements? He should, in the first place, r.Mam a course at a business collegethen be should serve as an apprentice in a wellequipped and well-managed creamery, under a clean and able buttermaker. for at least two years. The first year lie ought to learn t.o wash and liow to keep tlie creamery perfectly clean, liow to lire the boiler, operate, repair, and care for the machinery. If a man can learn liow to do the necessary washing', liow to take proper caie of tlie machinery, how to keep a creamery clean and aiso get some insight into tne balance of the work in a creamery in one year, he is doing very well, and promises to be a good man. The second year lie should learn hew to test the milk and cream, how to ripen cream, how to prepare starters, liow to score butter; and he should develop his sense for tasting and smelling', so he can judge milk, starters, cream and butter, and know when they are good or poor. This is very important.- but thus far this feature has been safily _ overlooked in the education and training of tlie buttermaker of to-day. H e should be partly instructed about the running of Uie creamery the second .year, should make some butter, and lie responsible for the outcome. If lie can learn ail this the second year, he will, -110 doubt,, be a most excellent buttermaker. but my experience lias been that few learn all this in two years—at least I could not do it. But I meet a number of young men who are looking for positions, or want help in securing positions as buttermakers after having worked less than one year in a creamery. This only proves tlieir ignorance and incompetency, as they have not worked long enough m a creamery to get even the least idea about tlie science of cream ripening and the aid of buttermaking, or tlie necessity and importance of qualifying themselves for the important calling they have chosen. After having worked in a creamery for a surlicient length of time to get a good training and understanding 01 the business, or long enough to be fairly well qualified as a buttermaker, the apprentice should take a course at a dairy school, where he may learn tlie whys and wherefores of buttermaking, milk testing, cream ripening, engineering, dairying, etc. This course is very essential as a finishing touch to the education of the buttermaker of the future. As buttermaking is a science, he must be educated as a scientist in that line. The time when buttermaking was considered of little importance, a position which any dirty tramp could fill to satisfaction, is already past. To run the cream into the cream vat and let it take care of itself, then slush some ivater around the creamery utensils, which finished the washing up, did not require much education. This is rapidly changing, however. Tlie buttermaker of the future will be highly educated, and I predict that lie will have to pass an examination and take out a license tlie same as druggists, doctors, lawyers, and men of other professions have to do now before tliey are allowed to practice for themselves. This has proved beneficial to the public, and also to men belonging to the fra ter-* xfity as a weeder-out of incompetency, and I can see no reason why a maij. should not be compelled to learn the business and stand the chances of an examination before proper authorities, before he is allowed to operate a creamery. This would do much good as a protection for the creameries against unqualified men. It is said it is the business of the owners of creameries to look into this matter and find out whether the buttermaker is qualified or not. Men who have the task of selecting a buttermaker from 20 to 100 applicants, with a year or more experience, know how easy it is for most any boy who has -worked a few months in a creamery to get a recommendation from the creamery board and buttermaker as being competent to take charge of a creamery. This practice of recommending inexperienced boys as buttermakers has done much harm, and will have to he stopped, or else some competent board of examiners will be needed in order that a buttermaker may go before the board, and if he can pass an examination, obtain a license, and in this way have a recommendation of some value. It is a fact that, as a general rule, the students at our dairy schools who pass the best examinations prove themselves to he the hest men in the field.

This is good evidence that an examination is of great importance in determining the ability of the men. The buttermaker has the welfare of- the creamery patrons entrusted to him, and this will be realised as the daily industry advances, and liis work will be appreciated according to its merits more in the future than in tlie past, and tlie pay will he according to the service rendered. The buttermaker of tbe future will not be overcrowded with work, as is the case with a great many to-day, but he will have sufficient time for reading and studying, and in this way h‘e will keep posted, be up-to-date, and educated according to the requirements of the time.