Station, Farm, & Garden.

Otago Witness, Issue 1586, 15 April 1882, Page 6

Station, Farm, & Garden.

DAfRY FARMING.

The probabilities of a profitable export trade in dairy p rodr.ee— butter especially, are generally regarded here as altogether dependent on the means available for its safe and speedy transit to the Home markets. That this is a prevailing idea among farmers has been maniferted by their support of the Meat .Freezing Company, and which further affords evidence of a strong desire to engage in this branch "of agricultural industry. To those who have given the subject close, consideration, it must, however, be manifest that no adequate estimate has as yet been formed of the conditions necessary to success in the enterprise, and that unless the usual dairy practices are abandoned or reformed, 'certain failure must result. Unfortunately, our home consumers have ■ not been exacting in the matter of quality. Makers of butter and cheese have, therefore, had no difficulty in satisfying their customers. This and some questionable successes at local shows have strengthened the, idea that our dairy produce is very suporior, and our producers have therefore been content to remain in ignorance of, or disregard the great advance which has been I made elsewhere, and within the last few years, in all branches of the dairying industry. It is somewhatremarkablothatpreciselysimilarideas as to tho superiority of their productions prevailed with the dairy farmers of the' United Kingdom until they were suddenly awakened ,to tho fact that the foreign article— butter especially — was rapidly supplanting theirs in the market, was preferred tby consumers, and •therefore fetched higher > -prices. To this pressure may solely' be attributed the! vast improvements effected in ' dairy management within the past four years in the United Kingdom, and if we hope to encounter successfully the formidable competition of j English, Continental, arid American'dairyfarmers in the Home" markets, our management be as nice and exact,, and our appliances ,in the manufactures as perfect, as theirß. v , The /lesson forced upon tho English farmers we 'must also learn, or abandon'the idea of benefiti'ing by the advantages of tho best markets in the world for butter and cheese.

1 What the" English butter' markets are is very 'well embodied in the report of a deputation ( by the Armagh Markets Committee, po the London Dairy Show held a few ,monthj3 t ago : —' The population of London nearly approaches < the entire population of Ireland. What quantity of butter does it take daily for Ireland ? ' How much more does it take for a butter- ■ eating people ;in London, who must have and f will pay for . butter— mild, clean, naturally good-coloured and flavoured. Indeed, such is the consumption that there need be no fear, if we sent all we could' produce, of a glut in the market.' In explanation of the falling off in demand for Irish butter in, the London market, the report states : — ' It is oversalted, too stale, too much worked, and badly got up, , consequently a foreign butter has supplanted it in the London market. 1 The butter from Nor,,mandy is largely imported, and only sin.cc - 1876 has driven out the Irish-made article at a loss to Ireland of about one million and a' half pounds sterling per annum. Of the English markets generally, the deputation further reported : — ' We also learned that while a very mild butter only will be bought in London, Manchester prefers salt butter, and Birmingham a medium salt; so that in England there appears to be three kinds of butter in request.' Thus almost simultaneously were the English butters whioh had monopolised the first place in the London market, and the best Irish brands whioh ranked second and third, sup planted by Continental make admittedly superior in quality. The foreign ' importations were appreciated and annually on the increase, the totals to England for the past year nearly of the value, of £14,000,000 sterling,! and it was apparent that dairy-farming in the United Kingdom was seriously jeopardised. It became a necessity that farmers should acquire sound information on the subject, educate themselves in new ways,' arid use approved I appliances. In Ireland, a dairy school wak established by the Rev. Oanon Bagot, and. this, as will appear subsequently, has been a decided success. The Royal Irish Society also took the matter in hand earnestly and practically, and have now travelling dairies to illustrate by actual work the best methods of making butter. The Royal of England has recently appointed 'a special dairy committee to initiate and supervise a department for the encouragement of this branch of farming industry, whilst throughout the country individuals and companies have already i established factories for butter and cheese making on better principals. There must be something in this educational idea too, for at the London autumn dairy show, and the principal exhibitions of dairy produce throughout England, all the prizes were carried off by exhibits from the dairy schools. The first dairy educational establishment started in the United Kingdom— the Munster dairy school — obtained the Lord Mayor's (London) Cup, the Royal Agricultural Society of England medal, and special prizo for the butter that Avas in best condition after tho seven day and night exposure to tho heat of the weather, and it is remarked—' This butter, treated with \w, of salt to 7 lb, was perfectly sweet at tho conclusion of the show, and goes far, in our opinion, to confirm the theory that really wellmade butter requires no salt to 'keep it.' It is further stated that the judges were the largest retail dealers in fresh butters in London, and that they pronounced the exhibits under notice

'unequalled for quality, flavour, and texture.' Sufficient has been adduced to show the extraordinary attention the industry has attracted

in the Mother Country lately, and the determination to attain, as nearly as possiblo, perfection in the manufacture of dairy produce.

Tf this bo fully comprehended by our dairy

farmers, the question will naturally isuggost il'olf, Jlmv wilJ our heterogeneous produce, stand in competition with that prepared with

such nicety and exactness, and according to uniform and approved rules 1 The result may be easily forecast. It is questionable if more than ten per cent, of the bulk of such butters as meet a ready sale, and often commendations, in the Dunedin market would, if sold in England- no matter how carefully carried— realise sufficient to cover freight and expenses. Every expert here in the trade knows how difficult it is to procure even a passable article in butter, and deems it fortunate that tho gr^at majority of customers arp unable to discriminate in the ■ matter, for, unaccustomed to a superior, their ■tastes are acquired, and hence the demand for every variety of compound.