PROF. LONG AND INSTRUCTION IN DAIRY MANAGEMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1927, 26 October 1888, Page 6

PROF. LONG AND INSTRUCTION IN DAIRY MANAGEMENT.

It was feared that the Government, in accordance with the counsel of a host of advisers, would mainly depend on the encouragement and extension of the factory system, for the promotion of the dairying industries in the colony. The second question submitted by the Agent-general for Professor Long's consideration and report dispels all apprehensions on the subject and conveys the assurance that it is contemplated to place within reach of the agricultural community means of acquiring the technical skill indispensable to the production of superior dairy products. Professor Long, in reply, recognises the importance o£ general instruction in dairy matters, and in a preliminary report— necessarily briefindicates his views as to the best methods of imparting with effect the information needed. His suggestion that •' central training stations should be opened in each island, which should be equipped with all the best appliances for scientific and practical dairying " will meet with general approval, and especially because there are existing facilities for giving effect to the proposal at little cost. Dairy factories having large and seasonable supplies of milk would exactly suit the purpose, the necessity for " keeping a herd of cattle " would be avoided, and it is unlikely that much difficulty would be experienced in effecting arrangements with directors of companies, as there are now numerous establishments to choose from. Thegreat advantages of having the use of the most approved appliances for butter and cheese making would be a valuable consideration with shareholders. Indeed it is becoming more and more apparent that dual equipment is indispensable at all considerable factories, so that butter or cheese making could be followed at will as one or the other promised to prove the more profitable. At a factory chosen for educational purposes of course residence accommodation would have to be provided for students, but in no part of the colony need this amount to a formidable item of expense. Should Professor Long visit the colony a very short experience would assuredly modify his ideas of the efficacy of " descriptive addresses delivered at a few head centres," and the printing and distribution of these addresses. For years the professor's own utterances on dairy subjects have been regularly published in the leading weekly journals, and without effect. Lectures and practical demonstrations would prove immensely attractive, and the only " draw " in the country districts among the people directly interested in the industry. As in the Home country, the working dairies will prove the great attraction here. In a review of the proceedings at the Yorkshire show it is stated in the Mark Lane Express:— " Among the many centres of attraction at the Yorkshire show the working dairy took a very prominent position. It was surrounded j by an eager crowd of spectators from early | morning until long after the closing time in j this particular department, and the prac- i tical illustration of butter-making given by the lecturer (Mr Thomas Nuttall) and by the manager of the dairy (Mf A. L. Dobson) interested not a few." It is worth noting that in the course of his remarks Mr Nivtall said : " The old-fashioned and ordinary system of setting milk in dairies which were properly ventilated, and perfectly sweet and clean, would turn out quite as good a quality of butter as the costly apparatus which is beyond the reach of many dairy farmers." It will be interesting to learn Professor Long's reasons for the advice to avoid the Danish method of making butter. In a lecture recently delivered by Professor H. J. Webb, of Aspatria College, the Normandy nd Danish systems are described. "In Normandy," he said, " the butter is generally

made on the day before the market day in the nearest town-, and the lump of butter is wrapped in a clean, linen cloth. In the : market are butter factois who buy up a large number of the lumps of various sizes and of different qualities which, at the close of the market, are sent to the factoiies. At these factories the lumps of butter are sorted according to their different qualities, and those of each quality are mixed up, by machinery. As a result of this process all the packages of the same brand are of fche same quality, . „ . The essential difference in the manufacture of French butter and Danish butter results from the fact that French butter is eaten almost directly, and is not made to keep any great length of time, whereas Danish butter is essentially a keeping butter." In an article in the North British Agriculturist it is stated in reference to the superiority of Continental butter as to quality, but also because of uniformity of quality :—" While that is true to a certain extent, it is equally true that in recent years a considerable proportion of home-made butter and cheese has been superior to that of the best foreign products, but the great butter merchants of London and the large cities showed decided preference for the Danish and Normandy butter, not only on account of its uniformity- of quality, but because it had become to be popularly regarded as superior to the home produce. This opinion has to a considerable extent been broken down of late."