Dairy Schools.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 237, 11 April 1896, Page 2

Dairy Schools.

o A circular issued by the Department of Agriculture sets out the arrangements for the coming winter, and we reprint the following extracts as of interest to oar readers : — North Island School,- The Directors of the Waverley Co-operative Dairy Company having offered the use of their buildings, they were found to be substantial and commodious, adjacent to the town and railway, and, as many of the dairyman have gone into winter dairying, a sufficient supply of milk is reasonably assured. The school will be open from July 23rd to August 21st, 1896, inclusive, to North Island managers and assistants. The schools will be conducted on similar lines to last year. The staff of instructors will include superintendent and lecturer ; instructor in cheese makmg ; inspector in buttermaking ; Instructor in milk-testing, instructors in separators and machinery. Special lecturers : J. A. Gilruth, M.R C S., and A. Park, M.R.C.V.S. Practical work will be carried on each day— exclusive of Sundays— from 8.30 to 5 p.m. All will bo required to be in attendance during those hours. Studeuts taking the full course will spend three days consecutively in eacb department, For those wishing to take special courses arrangements will be made accordingly. Managers and assistants of cheese and butter factories are eligible, but to guard against, overcrowding acceptances will be limited to a certain number. First preference will be given to manpgers, and second to first assistants, and then in order of seniority. Iv the event of a larger number of students applying than can be accommodated, arrangement will be made for a second term after the regular schools are over, at which cheese and buttermakers in private dairies will be invited, as well as those whose applications for admittance to tbe first courses cannot be accepted. Writing for certificates or diplomas will not be carried out during the coming schools ; but a scheme will be inaugurated at the opening of the next dairy season — September 1st — by which all factory butter and cheese will be inspected and judged, at the port of shipment, on a fixed scale of points by the Government Produce Graders. An inspection will also be made during tbe season of all factory premises by the Dairy Instructor, and points awarded for cleanliness, tidiness, and general management. The results of this practical part of this season's work, together with examinations more on technical lines, at the schools of 1897, will be combined, and certificates and diplomas issued accordingly. It may also be arranged that suitable trophies will be awarded to the managers scoring tbe highest average number of points for the season 1896-97, based on the reports of Instructors and Graders.