BUTTER BOXES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1258, 13 October 1911, Page 8

BUTTER BOXES.

TEST OF A NEW. LINING. A reference was made recently to a successiul trial' shipment of butter from Melbourne to London, packed in patent lined boxes of Oregon pine. A thrco months' test of butler similarly packed has been' : made in the Government cool stores in Melbourne. The Oregon pine boxes had a strong resinous odour, and the butter was enclosed in a patent paraffined paper envelope, the closing'or tho box mailing the lining airtight. The boxes wero opened last week in tho presence of'the Minister for Agriculture, and tho butter was found to . bo-sweet and untainted. Mr. 1!. Crowe, Superintendent of Exports, pronounced the test quite satisfactory. Tho object of the demonstration, says a Sydney paper, was to test the utility of the lining in connection with the uso of local timbers—Oregon, woolly butt, mountain ash, and Queen;, land hoop pine—for butter-boxes, which at present arc made from New Zealand white pine only, at a cost of Is. 7U1., which is regarded as high. Tho box from which the butter was taken, weighed 12J1b., and smelt highly resinous. On removing tho 1 paraffined lining, which is so constructed that it is airtight when the lid of tho box is affixed, no trace of taint in the butter (C'olac) was detected. When packed ou June 23 tho butter weighed 571b. 70z., and when placed on tho scale on September 28 its weight was 571b. 40z.. the loss in tho three months being 3oz. No figures wero availablo as t'o the cost of tho paraffined envelope, which may solve tho problem of dear but-ter-boxes, and encourage the use of some of tho useful Victorian timbers, but as it weighs only about 2Joz., the price must 'only bo trifling. The lining has also these farther advantaged that it reduces tho loss of weight by evaporation, and keeps the boxes perfectly clean, so that they cau thus bo used over and over again.