THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 8

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

It is certainly a sign of the growing importance o£ the cheese and butter industries in this part of the world "when London firms of repute send out qualified experts to review the conditions of the trade and make suggestions for their improvement. Messrs Coey and Co., whose letter on the subject was published in some of the local papers a few months since, have republished their suggestions in a booklet form, and have now despatched an agent to this colony ; and this gentleman, in conjunction with their local agent, is ncfr going round the various factories and suggesting certain changes to be made in the .get-up and carriage of both butter and cheese. In this they are but following in the wake of the National Dairy Association of New Zealand, which has been most active in its efforts to induce factories and dairy farmers to keep their produce up to a first-class standard and to ensure its delivery in sound marketable condition at Home ; and to the Association must also be given the credit of obtaining by its persistent efforts reductions in freight which have proved of substantial benefit to producers. In pursuing their investigations the Messrs CoeY' naturally started from the London end, and carefully examined the conditions under which so much of last year's cheese arrived in England either overheated or frozen. We are informed that compensation to the extent of £1000 has been awarded to the shippers for the produce which was improperly carried. We already know, from remarks made by the President of the Association at the annual meeting in June last, that both the NeAV Zealand Shipping and the Shaw-Savill Companies are doing their best to ensure immunity from the blunders of previous years. Several of the steamers are being entirely refitted so far as their refrigerating and cool chambers are concerned, and the Gothic is being fitted on the newest and best principles as regards her cheese and butter arrangements. This last vessel is to be put on the New Zealand trade, and will have carrying capacity for 75,000 carcases of mutton, while her cool-room space totals no less than 500 tons. Every alteration and modification that practical men and scientists could devise have been employed to render the Gothic quite without reproach as a vehicle for getting cheese and butter to Great Britain.

In the getting up and general method of dealing -with cheese and butter in and from the factory to the ship the arrangements have been in too many instances careless and faulty in the extreme in the past, chiefly through ignorance, and also in part from want of due and proper facilities. In sending • out these commodities from the factories we have to note, first, that small cheeses do not travel so well as large ones, and do not take the public taste at Home. Cheese should always be over 501b in weight to meet with favour. Neither butter nor cheese should ever be transhipped by a coastal steamer to the final port, but always in a cool car by rail, while the c artage to the nearest railway station should always be done by night. These may seem small matters, but every dairy expert ought to know the extreme importance of studying the exact temperature at which his product should be kept, and that a day's exposure to a hot sun in a cart, or on a quay while awaiting shipment, is simple ruin to butter. In the first place, then, the Railway department ought to supply a great many more of the cool ears at present in use, so that no factory should have to wait too long to get the use of such cars. In the next place, so long as these tender and perishable commodities are kept at the port of shipment waiting for a steamer and kept in an ordinary stone or iron store they are running a very serious risk indeed. If the trade is to succeed there must be refrigerating stores erected in the South Island at say Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, and the Bluff, to hold say 1000 tons each. We understand that in Victoria the Government has built such stores for the convenience of the trade, and in this colony there have been several communications on the subject between the Minister for Agriculture and the Dairy Association. Mr M'Kenzie has shown himself very desircras of aiding this industry, and he is at present considering the question, and will probably accede to the request vdiich has been made to him. We are informed that the bonus on bulter in Victoria, which proved so great an incentive to the industry last year, has been discontinued. The output from that colony, however, promises to be even greater next

year than it was last, and this chiefly because the Government is assisting it in other ways than by a direct bonus. Isow it is quite clear that our producers should be liberally encouraged in their efforts to take the fullest advantage of the favourable conditions our climate and soil already give them. In facilitating the despatch of dairy produce both on the rail and at the port of shipment the Government would not be sinning against any recognised economic maxim, and we trust that Mr M'Kenzib will not delay in coming to a decision. As regards steamers, there is no doubt that up to the present time we in this district have suffered a good deal from the very great irregularity which has characterised the despatch of the larger steamers. In the interests of the dairying industry there should be a steamer leaving Port Chalmers at frequent intervals during the season. This is, of course, a matter in which demand will create the supply ; and if the factories are regular in their demand for freight, self-interest may be trusted to provide it. Meantime loss has occurred over and over again for want of a vessel to take the butter and cheese just at the right time. Such refrigerating stores as we have suggested will partly get over this difficulty. The cost of freight, again, is still too high, notwithstanding that, as the result of continued complaint, the shipping companies have reduced the freight on butter by one farthing. Taking this reduction into account, we learn that the cost from Port Chalmers to London is still one farthing per pound more than from Melbourne to London, and our producers are handicapped to that extent in the competition.

There seems to be a universal consensus of opinion among those best able to judge that this colony should take the lead of the world in dairying, and it would be a great pity if with incomparable natural advantages at our back we should lose in the race through our own laxity or stupidity. Mr Valentine, our new dairy expert, is, we believe, admirably qualified to assist our farmers with the scientific information necessary to the complete development of the industry, and his advent should prove of great value. It may, perhaps, be worth while mentioning that from 25 to 35 degrees is found to be the best temperature for butter, and 45 to 55 for cheese, and this is in the future to be the temperature aimed at by all the carrying vessels. In order now to secure our full share of the dairying trade of the world — and there *is a practically unlimited market before vs — it only remains for us to make the very best use possible of our wonderful opportunities. Wool and wheat are low in price, but farmers and exporters can reckon with tolerable certainty on getting between 120s and 130s per cwt. for their butter, and this is good enough to pay every factory. There is one more matter that farmers will have to attend to themselves, and it is by no means of minor importance. Milk will hereafter be bought not by the gallon only but by the fat -giving matter which the milk contains. Many of the cattle' at present in use for dairying purposes are unsuitable, and it will pay enterprising dairymen to get rid of these and substitute the breeds which have proved to be most valuable.