Butter Factories in New South Wales.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1838, 31 May 1886, Page 4

Butter Factories in New South Wales.

THE MITTAGONG CREAMBBY. The following article, taken from the Australasian of May 1, will interest the dairy fanners of this district . •• Butt, r -liUwartu, in kegs, la tid per pound ; l.ieiory made, tid ; mteic lonial packed, dull, at to Is 3d." So sta ,ds the market report in the Sydney papers of the 15th lost , and each is the usual relatiou maintained between " lacloiy made " and other butter. In the spring season, when butter is cheapest, the difference in favour of factory made is never lc-s ;han 3d per pound. If the difference were tie other way, and factory butter brought a lower price, the factory system might still be the best, owing to its being a cheaper means of prod action, for the saving of labour might be set against the best in price, bat when the advanced system of modem dairying both saves labour and increases the valne of the product, it is surprising that farmers are so slow to take advantage of such great improvements. In Melbourne the small quantity of “factory made " tb it is “ separator butter" fetches 3d per ponud more thm the ordinary price although the merits of the new .-yatem of manufacture axe not yet generally known, but the market is gece ally udverftiy affected *>y the snptly of inferior maieiial from private dairies. While aI w private dairies produce good baiter the balk from these sources is inferior, and as it is of mixed character it is unfit for exporting at a good price. The mixed samples are manipulated by exporters, and when it reaches the Sydney market it is sold for 3d per pound less than ordinary batter, and ltd per pound less than “ factory made,” as the above quotation ■hows. As the “factory made” comes in jars from Mittagong by rail *0 miles, or by •hip from the south east coast districts, the grent iocs involved in the single dairy system of Victoria is apparent. The Mittagong Creamery was established about four years ago by the Sydney Fresh Food and lee Company. It was the first factory in which the centrifugal-cream separators were employed in New Swath Wales, and the results have been so satisfactory that the apparatus is being extensively introduced into all the dairying districts of the colony. Other lactones have also been started, and altogether the introduction of the centrifugal cream separators has infused fresh vigour into the dairying industry of the colony. The Mittagotig factory was commenced by the company as an aid to the Sydney milk supply business. The factory is so managed as to take all the milk thi»t the farmers can bring in the tlush season, ;u d to induce 1 ;i-in to augment their winter tugmy. liming the season of scarcity 8d per gai.o.i and upwards is given for the milk and iu the :lu.-h season the same price s given for a quantity iqual to the average winter supply. All above that quantity is • token at a price equal to one third of the value of hotter in the Sydney market. Thus if batter is Is per pound all the milk above the winter average is pa’d for at the rate of 4d per gallon. The effect of this arrangement is to induce farmers to feed their cows audkeep up the winter supply, for they not only get a good price for the winter milk, but secure a similar price for an equal quantity of the spring and summer milk, when the general price is, perhaps, less than half that amount. The factory, picitf re, is only worked in the spring and summer to use up the surplus milk, and is consequently not in operation at present. Mittagong, SO miles Irom Sydney on the Southern railway hue, is centrally situated in regard to the most di-tan: section of the most distant dairying districts in this direction. From Mossvale the miik comes to the factory by rail, and from Bowral and the country around Mittagong for a distance of 10 or 12 miles, esrts, bring in the supply from the farms. The pasture is of somewhat the same quality as that along the foot hills of the ranges near Wallan Wallan in Victoria. In winter the vratUr is cold, and snow falls, except ta exetpaocal years. Such is the charade of tin I rt dairying country within 80 miles of Sydney ~n a railway line. Farmers are generally disinclined to cultivate the land in order to supply winter food for stock, preferring to depend on the old system of producing a Hash of milk in summer and spring, and little or nothing in the winter, but the actii n of the company has had a marked effect iu increasing the profitableness of dairy farming, and encouraging the winter feeding of milking cows. The Mittagong Creamery is a large two story stone building close to the railway elation, with a railway siding tanning along side of the establishment. The upper floor ie used for storing purposes. In one room

there are three Danish separators, two large cheese tubs, and the cheese presses, while in • the other arc the chum, Latter worker, cream cans, scales, Ac. The milk is received in tbe latter apartment, weighed, tasted, tried by the lactometer, and samples are put into tubs for cream test. After passing these tests, of which a record is taken, the can of milk is elevated by block and tackle and poured into a large receiving tank, from which it flows is an open tin spout to a supply tank above the separators in the next room. From the AOO gallon supply tank it runs into the separators through strainers and regulating taps. From the separators it comes out in the shape of milk and cream. The cream flows into ten gallon cream cans and the skim milk into the large cheese tabs. The skim milk is then ma -e mto cheese ut once, and the cream is removed to the churning room, where it remains two days to mature. At the rear of the building thtr_- is a seven horse power engine, which is ijnite sufficient to drive the turee separators, tbe churn, and the buttei workir, besides supplying steam for heating 11 c 'ream tubs The churn is a revo.ving octagonal one holding 30 gallons. It is not large enough and so it is to be replaced by oue of dou blithe size. The churn, the batter worker, ami the separators were imported l om tin Aylesbury Dhiving Company of London From the revolving churn, the butter is taken and put upon the butter worker. This is large circular tab.e <;it in diameter, whic reovlves under eoriugated wooden rollers, am rpon wnieh the butter is thoroughly washes and salted without being touched by hand The butter is next packed into earthenwan jars each holding about 10 pounds, and thesi jars are placed in refrigerating cars, and sen to the c, mipar y's cold rooms in Sydney Jars art preferred to barrels as less like!v i. Stain tr injure the butter, especially in tie flee of Keeping i‘t. i ; long time in the col rc-om. As tl t- bmder enn be krpt for :.n ler gth of litre in the cold stores the c nupim. is able to keep a quantity over from the tin/’ ►earn t > tbe winter, prices are high la taULiKLaieni the butter i un.de np into Lu, U ua jib prints, placed u trays in the cold room, and supplied to tie public i i a fresh and firm condition even ii the hottest weather. There is no specisecret in the making of the batter. Ti separators produce tin’ ap air in such per fa condition that good bn-t-ris easily made, i has been found inad\i.abie to churn tl ■ cream fresh from the .-paratois. In P summer it is kept two days to mature, and i, winter a loeger time would be necessarv Uumatured cream makes soft and rather oi : iutter. The cream cans are placed m water tan! > the water he , i; pi cool m hot weather i.ice. Eacit c • :t m :s in a larger one con taming waic.-, r ,;c being nn. of space between the inner and outer cans. Mr Kober Prideaux. the foreman of the Vfittagong fac lory, makes periothca] visits of inspection k the farms of the muk suppliers to see tba* the requirements of the factory are carr.e out It is provided that glacial me at th rate ofludfan ounce to to gallons shorn, be put into the morning's milk, and m. ounce to the gallon into the night's milk The glacia me, which is imported by tin company direct from London, and sr.p plied at cost price., vu. ts yd. per Sue packet, is put into the milking-pails i assist in keeping it sweet. The mi k has a n tube ran through a Lawrence cooler, an cooled to a temperature of 6o deg. befor< spring Uie (arm. It usually arrives at the 1

factory at about 70 deg., and is in a fit state a t the separators. Formerly the milk was ■mated in the supply tank before going into t .e separators, but this course being found unnecessary, has been abandoned. In the case of milk being forwarded to Sydney, it must be delivered at the railway station at a mperature of not more than yodeg. If over this temperature it is carried at the s pplieFs risk, and it is not likely to reach Sydney in sound condition. The factory is c ipable of taking 1,500 gallons a day when both cheese and butter are made, and a much larger quantity if the making of butter a.one is carried out. The separators are of the largest size, and hitherto it has only been found necessary to work two at a time.

The skim milk runs directly from the separators into two large cheese tubs, One contains 400 gallons and the other 600. They aie of the ordinary factory kind, and they are heated by steam. The butter milk from the churn is put into the cheese tubs to improve the quality of the skim-milk cheese, and when the churn is not working new milk i- added at the rate 50 gallons to the 1,000 ‘ 1 skim-milk. When cheese is being made 11 is all* the custom to work the separators rlas to leave a little cream in the milk. As every particle of the cream can he taken out

ey the separators, the cheese would be very dry without the additions referred to. One of the new patent emulsiers has been obtained, but it has not yet been used. This machine is designed to throughly disintegrate beef fat and mix it with the skim-milk to produce an improved skim-miik cheese. 1 he ordinary skim-milk cheese as hitherto made sells at about qd. per lb. when full milk cheese is ceiling at from 6d. to Sd, per lb. In the cheese factory the plant is the aamc a? generally employed in the American system.

Pigs are fed upon the whey, and sometimes upon skim-milk. Whetherit is more profitable to feed pigs with the skim-milk or make it into cheese depends upon the markets, and the advantage ofthe creamery system is that the milk can all be turned to the most profitable account. The proper treatment of the milk is one of the greatest importance, for if the milk is bad no after treatment can produce good butter. Care is taken to get the milk from the farmers in as good condition as possible, and when it reaches the factory there is no danger of it going bad. The cream is at once separated trom the milk, and hence all loss from souring is prevented. It is also observed that the cream being free from milk, keeps and matures better than skimmed cream which always contains more or less milk. For the rest everything is kept clean, the milk is thoroughly taken out of the butter there is no oiliness imparted by contact with the hands, and the whole output of the factory is not only good, bnt of the same quality. The thecreiical advantages of the butter factory system have been frequently pointed out in this journal, and our special commissioner to America set forth the successful working of the system in that country. The position of factory-made butter in the Sydney market shows that the theoretical teaching has been correct, and that the system is at least as suitable to these colonies as to America and other countries.