THE HOME CHEESE TRADE.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 101, 2 March 1897, Page 2

THE HOME CHEESE TRADE.

In an article on Chpshire cheese that appeared in a late number of Chambers' Journal, a very good idea may be gained of the manner in which the exportation of cheese from America and the colonies has affected, and in n great measure ruined, the trade in the O.'d Country. The first paragraph reveals a very unsatisfactory state of the industry. It says : " The passing year will be remembered by all connected with the Cheshire cheese trade as one of the most disastrous that they have ever experienced, but if they are not comforted with the reflection that better times are ahead, they will at least be able to derive solace from the conviction that things cauunt well be worse than they hare been in the 181)5 and IS9G seasons. Whether they will improve next year the development of events in the dairy industry at Home and abroad aloue can determine. Consumers of cheese rarely know whence their purchases are derived, and Cheshire cheese is to them more of a name than a reality ; and it must certainly have come as a great surprise to many to be told thit the finest cheese shown on the pitch at Whitchurch lately sold for 40s per cwt, and infeiior qualities for as low as 20s, when they were paying from 9d to Is a pound in London and the provincial towns for what they were told was Cheshire." The article goes on to say that the middlemen do not get the enormous profit they are supposed to have, aim says the reason the cheese now commands such a miserably low figure is because the farmers have been beguiled into adopting the not long discovered " rapid ripening process," whereby a cheese can lie placed on the market within a week or so of leaving the press, and biings milk and money nearer together ; but its keeping properties are nil, and cheese so made can only be disposed of for immediate consumption. The writer goes nn to explain how the factors have been bitten by this " slapdash " made cheese, and then points out tint they of course buy in other markets, of which the best is the Canadian. That country has now surpassed America, for in 1894 it received more than £1,000,000 more from England for cheese than did America. The fo lowing reference to our part of the world is undoubtedly true, and should prove a warning to us : "'1 he antipodes have come into play as a se ions factor in the chepsc situation, the first nine months of 1894 witnessing the landing of 92,102 hundredweights thence, and as the greater part of this came in the earlier part of the year, it helped to intensify the plethora of stock from all sources. With such a great make on all sides, agents for Canadian factors and importers generally advised their correspondents not to ship, as a glut would mean the sending down of prices. American and Canadian shippers followed tliis advice, and some factories were closed down, while thousands of boxes of chcfse were put into stoic in Montre.il and in the Western States to be brought out in better times." Then follows this pertinent paragraph : "Only Australasia failed to take any notice of the condition of markets here, and with characteristic obstinacy shipped repeatedly in face of falling markets." Such an article as the one quoted should teach our shippers ol cheese and butter how to manage their business in a better manner, and make them refrain from causing a glut through " characteristic obstitucy." It also demonstrates that only well made and thoroughly matured cheese will find ready sale on the English market.