CHEESE STANDARDISATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1930, Page 14

CHEESE STANDARDISATION.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —‘■'Johnny, you awful boy, whatever ’ave you been doing to your jacket and pants? They are full of great big holes?” “Aw, inum, we was playing at storekeeping and I was the cheese.” So Johnny knew all about the Taranaki standardised article. Well, 500 men went up to Hamilton to hear Mr. Singleton and other big medicine men tell them how a saleable cheese could be made from Jersey milk, but, as Euclid would say, this is impossible and they came home deeply disappointed, but had a rattling' good time, for I know I enjoy my bi-monthly trips there immensely, though I slipped the Is.D.A. stalemate this trip. It is clear that the man there with his head screwed on right was Mr. Vcale, and it would have been better if some of the other actors had had pressing engagements elsewhere. To me, from reports received, the Massey College man was an intense disappointment, for he had the chance of his lifetime —just such a chance as Mr. Singleton had on his return from his world tour. Opportunity knocked uselessly at botlr doors, but loudly. With two herds. Jersey and Holstein, at the college the man that wanted to get there and give us the information we are all. thirsting for (although Mr. Veale has already given it) would have kept them separate, made cheese all the season, and published ■results, and these results, now that the North Island cheese is /meeting its Waterloo, might to-day have been an inspiration and a lead, but now as the songs 'gays, “We’re back, in the bo' again, JBoys,” and the jersey strangle hold triumphs. ; ’ ■ ' Standardisation fans are busy tellinj of making from Id per lb butter-fat ti 1.86 d (Mr. Veale’s academic figures. But vftiat have we lost? _A solid millior last season, and, very’much worse than that, our good name gone. Mr. Brash says the crisishas come. Mr. J. R. Corrigan (reported to have kicked off the Jersey leg-rope) says the same; wholesalers refusing to handle the stuff,-and every mail is bringing most disturbing reports'about our standardised cheese, for Tooley Street is thoroughly alarmed, and no wohdbr with 22,000 crates reputed to be returned to store unsafe able, and yet, Allah is great, and we make a penny, per lb. This reminds me of poor old. John Stapleton, who. cominw from the races broke, said, “I was just beginning to do well, when my money went done.” Standardisation fans were making a penny when it crashed. . • And now the crowd that boosted It want to get away from the stench it has left and° are out now chasing tne “premium” rainbow. I will admit the idea is an ideal one in theory, but in carrying it out is where the trouble starts. °lt is voluntary, and the man who gets a yield of 2.90 is not going to link up. And the grading? This must bo done at home, and by graders wno know English tastes, and this is just exactly where the Dairy Division falls down; they haven’t the men who know, or otherwise the awful stuff they have passed and allowed to be shipped would show them unfitted for the new departure, for finest here must be finest on the grocer’s counter. In a dairy paper this month a factory manager says, *'

the fheddar cheese we are making is no t chcddar at all, because Cheddar cheese is made from milk as it comes from the cow.” Separation causes bubbles in milk, and these bubbles ■ form the holes, spoil our cheese. Shades of Sawers and other great cheesemakers. New Zealand cheddar is not Cheddar at all.’ No wonder he addfl, “the standardisation bubble is burst, the leaders must realise it, yet we stagger on blindly to ruin.” lii plain English, Jersey owners are only chasing'their own tails instead of catchino- the premium, if the pool is not compulsory with English grading. None 0 your 14 day-old green cheese, and amateur aradera for ine— I am, etc., AV. R. WRIGHT. Rahotu. -