ARGENTINE: OUR RIVAL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1696, 31 August 1904, Page 76

ARGENTINE: OUR RIVAL.

MU J. A. KINSELLiA’S VISIT. SOME IMPRESSIONS. Mr J. A. Kinsella, Chief Dairy Commissioner, has submitted a report to Sir Joseph Ward. Minister of Industries and Commerce, on the dairying and meat industries of the Argentine Republic. DAIRYING. Tn the Argentine Republic only a very few years ago the dairy industry had, says Mr Kinsella, practically no existence. The milk of the millions of cows which were in the country was utilised for no other purpose than for raising the calves. It must, however, be remembered that the Argentinos have always been producers of meat and hides, and even in the early days of the country they bred many good beef cattle. At the present day we find the milk-supply business of many of the small towns, and even the suburbs of the large cities, such as Buenos Ayres, carried on in a very primitive fashion. The milk for city and town supply is in some cases brought in in cans on horseback, the cans being slung at each .side of the horse, and the motion of the horse causes the milk to be churned, thereby producing a soft butter. This butter is collected or gathered and sold to the clients; and the milk, which can hardly be termed buttermilk, is also sold at a fair price, owing to the lar, percentage of fat still left in it. Many of the (native) Spanish people, strange to say, yet prefer this mushy soft butter to a good article produced in a butter factory. Another system of reaching the. city milk-purchaser with what they term a pure milk is by driving the cows around the streets and milking them into small graduating measures or tin mugs in front of the houses. The cow is very often stopped a dozen times, or at feast the process is carried out in front of a dozen purchasers’ premises. The calf must always be tied to the leg of the cow, otherwise the cow will not give down her milk—so the owner of the cow claims. All this, however, is being gradually done away with, particularly in the large city of Buenos Ayres. In the latter city you will now find many fine places for drinking milk, milk shakes, etc. These places, as a rule, are painted white inside, and are kept scrupulously clean. The milk handled by the milk-shops is sent in from the large estancias (farms) in tho country. They have also a few factories where milk is pasteurised and sterilised for city supply; and there is at the present time a large company being' formed, and an enormous building is being erected for the purpose of pasteurising and sterilising milk, which will serve nearly the whole of the city of Buenos AyresThe milking is done largely throughout the dairying districts by Rastoua;

very few of the native “ Spanish ” people care to indulge in this kind of.labour. The Bastous emanated from the southern part of France. They are said to be a very industrious people, and make first-class milking hands. They seem a contented people, and although they do not have the same facilities for entertaining as the people in the cities do, they always seem to have their own fun on particular holidays. Tho homes of the Bastous on the farms or estancias are not very elaborate ; auy sort of a rough hut of slabs or sods, covered with a tin or thatched roof, answers the purpose. In such a comparatively mild climate as tile Argentine they do not need nearly as much protection as we do in the cattle districts of our country, particularly in the South Island of New Zealand. It can, therefore, easily b© imagined what an advantage a country like tho Argentine, as a dairying country, has even ■ over Canada, United States, and Russia: abundance of grass and water and sunshine almost the year round. BUTTER-MAKING. So far as the actual work of buttermaking in the Argentine is concerned, the system adopted in most factories is somewhat different from ours in New Zealand,-says Mr Kinsella. The hulk of tli© cream at most factories comes in in an over-ripe condition—that is. for the butter-maker to have control over it, or, in other words, for him to bo able to ripen it uniformly with a good starter. The fact of the cream arriving at the factories in this condition may be accounted for by the following reasons:— First, dirty milking yards; second, dirty milkers; third, dirty, rusty cans. And the most dangerous source of infection, in his opinion, is tho carrying of milk and cream long distances by rail in these rusty cans. A great deal of * tho milk is brought to the creameries in small cans on horseback. Large quantities of cream are also brought to the railway stations from the small estancias or farms in this same manner. It is an astonishing thing to see a native coming to a small siding or station with six or eight cans of cream slung from each side of the horse’s back. They also very often take double that number of empty cans back with them. Most of the Argentine butter which Mr Kinsella examined both in the country and on the African markets, had the appearance of being overworked, and he was thoroughly convinced of that point after watching the process in some of the large factories. The Argentine butter is much paler in colour than tlie New Zealand article. This may be accounted for partly by the food eaten by the cattle, and perhaps the breed of cow may have something to do with it. Then, also, the large amount of friction given the butter in the working process tends to grease it, and make it, as it wore, have the appearance of hog’s iard. A good deal of the butter exported is not salted. This latter is even paler than the salted butter. He has, of course, always found from experience that salt adds a little colour to the butter. While in Capetown and Durban

iw learned from a number of dealers that the Argentine pale butter was very well thought of. It, however, only required a glance to see that New iand butter was the finest-made butter •Bent into Africa, but the mistake was .that they did not get it there while it was newer. Mir Kinaalla is in hopes that we may by experimental work get some method of reducing the high colour in our butter without ruining the body and texture, as the British expert buyer thinks bo much of the latter. His advice to New Zealand producers m the past has been rather against the manufacture of unsalted butter in large quantities for cexport, on the grounds of the greater liability to deterioration in transit during the long voyage, as compared with fifteen days from the Argentine, or a few days from Denmark. The Argentine is differently situated and can afford to take the risk, for the reason that they can land their butter in London in such a short time, compared with the time it takes our butter to reach the British consumer. There is an arrangement being entered into which will enable the producers in the Argentine to land their butter in London in fifteen days, so when they get such a quick fortnightly service as this they can lay their butter down in the O'ld Country in a fairly fresh condition, as compared with ours. The !'o utter-boxes are not so good in the Argentine, the timber not being so suitable. Like the Canadian boxes, the sides, bottoms, and covers are often in threo pieces, tengued and grooved. The Argentine people, however, have paid more attention to the question of making boxes for the African market of much heavier timber, and also to nailing them better. THE, MEAT INDUSTRY. Dealing with the frozen meat industry, Mr Hinsella says:—‘To see the millions of fat cattle dotted all over the country, and such an abundance of grass and water late in the autumn, I could not help but think that some day the Argentine will down the world in the growing of beef. According to figures given in the “Year-book,” tlie Argentine is working under better conditions in the growing of live stock than any of the British colonies. It is claimed that at present the majority of the freezing companies aro working with much less expense in the administration, etc., taking it the year round, and their output is much greater, thereby enabliug them to pay in proportion enhanced value-s to the esfanciero' (farmer). Another strong point in favour of the Argentine estancieros is that they work steadily throughout the whole year, whereas, according to statistics, the upwards of fifty stations in the British colonies are only able to work on an average, taking them all round, a little over one-third of the year. So enormous is the business of growing fat stock in the Argentine becoming, that it is estimated by reliable authorities that within very few years they should be able to export two million steers either alive or through the freez-ing-works. “ I have seen a great many fine flocks of sheep in the Argentine, and some of the breeders pay extraordinary prices for stud stock at Home; notwithstanding this, and the fact also that they have such an excellent climate for the breeding of animals, their sheep, on the •whole, in my opinion, do not compare with best New Zealand and Australian sheep. You will, however, find some of the best stud stock that is to be found in any part of the world. “In my opinion, the republic is favouied with a combinatio? 1 ' of advantages over many other, or, perhaps, over almost any country in 'the world. lam Btill further of the opinion that if the Argentine agricultural and pastoral industries were developed on anything like up-to-date lines, within very few years they would he able to land their products on the markets of the world almost beyond competition.”