The London Dairy Show

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 7

The London Dairy Show

« [CORRESPONDENT "CANTEBBUBY TIMES."]

London, Oct. 11.

The most important event of a particularly uneventful week has been the opening of tho annual dairy show at the" Agricultural Hall; and in thia time-honoured exhibition there is little to make a song about. With oomo slight alterations and n. very few additions, either of the reports I have sent you in the last three years would answer admirably for the show now in progress. There is the same old display of " latest pattern" milk-carts and trucks in the entrance, the same line of exhibition cowo, the same parade of cheese, the same butter-making contests, and the same old fancy stalls in the gallery, having no earthly connection with dairying, as in days gone by. To me it seemed that on the whole this year's show was, if anything, slightly lesß interesting than usual, and quite as badly managed as its predecessors. The colonies were represented by a couple of stands backing on to each other at the far end of the hall, hut it was not governmental enterprise which gave us these exhibits, Messrs Reynolds and Co. and the Colonial Consignment and Distribution Company being the responsible parties. The first-named firm was represented by a mound of the famous " Anchor Brand" butter-kegs and cheese intermingled, set off with a few ferns and palms. It wbb not an attractive exhibit, but the cheese on show was of good quality, and the butter waa— (veil " Anchor Brand," and if not at its very best at least very near it. The flavour and texture of the casks opened for inspection were splendid. It wonld be well if all Außtralasian butter-makers were to tako this celebrated make as their standard and try to keep their output up to it. At the present moment "Anchor Brand" is worth 112s.

The C.C. and D. Company's stall was more attractively put together. The backing consisted of a goodly show of cheese— Edendale make, I fancy— flanked on tha screen with oak and gold-framed photographs of New Zealand scenery. The cheese had been rubbed up to exhibition form, and was of very fine quality. The front of the stand was occupied by a couple of pyramids of butter boxes, which, to the initiated eye, proclaimed the fact that they were " made in England." Some were of virgin white wood and Borne stained to represent (I suppose) kauri, the two colonrs being arranged check fashion. The boxos all bore the legend " Australian Grass Butter," and the monogram of the C.C. and D. Co., some purporting to come from South Australia, others from Victoria, and others from New South Wales and New Zealand. Between the pyramids stood a fine tree fern, flanked by a couple of genuine butter kegß, which I waa. privately informed contained "Anchor Brand." A liberal supply of email ferns and palms completed the show, which, by the way, included a box of " pound pats "of Australian butter, plentifully bedecked with pawley. The C.C. and D. Company, I understand, intend to make an effort to induce buyers to go in for Antipodean butter put up iv this form. Messrs Reynolds tried the same game a few years ago, but abandoned it after a fair trial. Ab was the case when he ran the New Zealand exhibit at the Agricultural Hall last year, Mr C. R. Valentine came in for a good deal of chaff over his "kauri" butter boxes, but no amount of "jollying" seems to shake his faith in kauri as a material for butter packages. I might here remark that the two exhibits above mentioned gained the first and second prizes iv the class for "Exhibitions of Colonial Produce," the C. C. and D. Company taking the red ticket. As the tno firms were the only entrants in this particular eection, tha honour of the awards did not amount to much. The shows, indeed, were unworthy of the colonies, and I think it is a pity that some united action is not taken by the several Governments to make a really good display at thoso agricultural and dairy exhibitions. An octagonal kiosk, built up of indigenous Australasian timbers, would Berve to house the seven colonies' exhibits, giving each an independent show, and leaving one section for a general information bureau, from which could be distributed pamphlets concerning the colonies; or it might be used as a mineralogical section, since each of the colonies produces valuable metals. I think, however, the information bureau would be the best. May be Western Australia, and Tasmania and Queensland would not care to join hands with the other colonies in such a matter, since they are not as yet in the dairy produce arena. They could, however, occupy their spaces in the kiosk with other products— agricultural and pastoral, or mineral— and so add to the general attractiveness of the whole Australasian exhibit whilst advertising their own particular colonies. By co-operation the cost of exhibiting each colony's wares at all the principal shows in Great Britain could be reduced to a mere bagatelle, and I am sure " the game would be worth the candle."

Of the principal exhibits appertaining to dairying in its most important stages, the ono which attracted most attention was the milking apparatus invented by Messrs Shiels and Elliot. You have had descriptions of this affair, co it would be waste of time for me to say much about it. I saw but one brief trial upon half-a-dozen cows. They were milked in about seven minutes from the placing of the teat-cup, and seemed to enjoy the operation. The preliminary operations seemed to take an unconscionably long time, but probably this was owing to the fact thatthe apparatus was in process of fixing iv parts. From the Journal of the Royal Society of England I gather that the tests are considered to have proved the machine to fulfil every requirement. It seenaß to me, however, that the invention is only suitable for very large dairies. The cost of a handpower machine capable of milking four cowb at a. time, with all overhead piping for byres, rubber tubes, teat cups and milk pailo, is £4.5 f.o.b. Glasgow, whilst a power machine for r» dairy of seventy or eighty cows costß about £100.

Another exhibit which attracted much notice was the " Kadiator Butter-maker." The inventor of this appliance claims, for it a variety of advantages over all existing butter-makers, naturally. It is the only dairy machine in existence which makes butter direct from the milk, the churning is practically done simultaneously with the skimming without additional expense. The souring process iB entirely done away, and the Pasteurised butter, produced by the radiator, is fine and uniform in quality, and is said to have better keeping qualities than other butters. One man is sufficient to properly attend the wholo operations of the radiator, tho whole process being performed automatically. The machine is fairly simple in construction and easily taken to pieces for cleansing purposes. The motive power required for driving the whole machinery of a radiator dairy, working about 180 gallons of milk per hour is but four effeotive horse-power. The French Minister of Agriculture is said to approve highly of the rAdiator, but his opinions may be worth everything or nothing. Sir Westby Perceval, who takes a keen interest in all that conoerns dairying, has also spoken well of the machine. To completely equip a dairy with a large size radiator plant capable of working up to one hundred and eighty gallons per hour, would cost quite £350 in the colonies, and for a small plant equal to forty gallons per hour £150. These prices include tank for whole milk, Pasteurizer, skim milk cooler, cold water tanks, butter worker, pumps, pipeß with knees, joints, &c, steam engine, boiler, bearings, pulleys and strapping. The actual prioe of the large radiator, minus the various items mentioned above is £80, and for the small £40. Payment may be made, however, by premium at ninepence per 1001 bof butter made by the machine during ten years.

Mr Alexander Bernstein, of Berlin, shows an entirely novel feature in dairying. He has discovered a process by which those harmless by-produots of milk, butter-milk and whey, oan be turned into beverages, of pleasant taste and smell, which can be made alcoholic or not as the manufacturer chooses. The b»«o of

this invention is a peculiar bacterium! which dissolves the caßein without the previous curdling of the milk. -If the b icterium's action be properly regulated, the result is a perfectly transparent liquid, whioh can be aerated and 'made into a pleasant effervescent non-alcoholic beverage, or can be subjected to fermentation and turned into drinks of a more or leas intoxicating nature I need hardly point out the possibilities of Mr Bernstein's in* veution, they will be patent to the densest-