MILK TESTING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1136, 25 May 1911, Page 10

MILK TESTING.

' AN INTERESTING PHASE. Correspondence has taken place between the secretary of the J oil Co-operative Dairy Company and Mr. I>. Browne, Director of Technical Education for the 'Northern, Ward of the Wanganui Education District (says the "Hawera Star"), in reference to the instruction given in testing milk,' and the following resolution was passed by the directors of the company and forwarded to tho Wanganui Education Board: "That a letter be sent to the Wanganui.Education Board pointing out the system of reading tests as taught in tho public schools in comparison with the system of reading tests carried out by the Government staff." The idea is that the system in vogue in the schools gavo tho suppliers the. benefit of 0.2, as compared with the'ordinary method. Tho correspondence' was submitted to Mr. Cuddie, Director of the Dairy Produce Division of the Agricultural Department, and ho wrote to the board, pointing out that ,tho two methods of reading the fat column in the Babcock teat had received a good deal of attention since tho inception of the tests. It was admitted by all' that to harmonise tho readings according to the Babcock method with those of gravametric analyses, the readings must bo made as between the extreme points (that is, the method taught by Mr. Browne). For the other side of the argument, Mr. Cuddio continued, it is contended that in butter-making thero is a certain unavoidable loss in skimming, and that this fat is returned to tho supplier 'in tho skim-milk. In chtwe-making the same tiling applies, but the supplier gets a certain amount of fat in the whey. "In our experimental work," concluded Mr. Cuddie, "our officers read the full fat column ,—(as Mr. Browne teaches)—and the tests are read at such temperatures that thero can be little doubt as to the exact reading; consequently it can hardly bo claimed that the low method of reading isono we invariably follow.'' At tho same time, it must be admitted that practically all factory managers read on the lower scale, and that this habit has become so general as to form n custom which is so well established that in ofactory work it must bo recognised as having come'to stay.'

In the United ' Kingdom there aro 2.09-4,587 horses. 11.765,453 cattle, 31,164,587 sheep and 3,561,481 pigs.

Mr. D. M'Clure (president), at the annual meeting of tho Courtenay (Canterbury) A. and P. Association, said that unfortunately the year that 'had passed had not been a very successful one for farmers. Tho severe and prolonged drought had materially affected tho yields of both oats and wheat. Grass was scarce, and both mutton and lamb were lower in price than in some seasons. The rape and turnip crops had suffered severely from blight, and in some cases the potato crop had been severely injured by the grub. However, everything had not been against them. Wool had been a good price, and oats and wheat wcro worth good money.