MR TAYLOR ON NEW ZEALAND BUTTER & CHEESE.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 135, 2 January 1886, Page 7

MR TAYLOR ON NEW ZEALAND BUTTER & CHEESE.

Whils* addressing the meeting of farmers and others at Cambridge on Friday evening, 25th* ult., Mr Taylor referred at some length to the quality of New Zealand batter. From what he had seen in tbe papers about Netr Zealand butter and the intention of New Zealand farmers to secure a market for their produce in London, he had made' it his business to take every opportunity Of Uitiajj its quality, The result of his

tests was not of the most satisfactory character Indeed, he had neve? tasted a piece of butter in New Zealand which could claim to be classed as first-class produce. In factj it was not even incifferent second-class. The greater number of the samples which had fnllen across his path "were rancid-Mlnfit for human food. It was just as well that they should know these things. He had tasted some butter in a certain Very swell establishment in Auckland* and it was simply wretched ; abominabw in fact* there was no reason why we should not make as good butter in this colony- as they did in Norway ahd Sweden. The latter place made some splendid butter, which, in the Engliph market, commanded 3s 6d a lb. There was nothing peculiar in the soil of these countries, which enablel them to make better butter than we have in New Zealand. The difference was in the system of making, nothing more. The peasantry is Norway attend to every detail in order t:> get the proper article-, and they don't allow their milk to stand over 48 hours until the last fragments of cream had risen to the surface ; when they allowed the milk to stand and become sour they would never produce good butter. In fact he had noticed that a great deal of the milk had become rancid before it was churned. If they wanted to improve the quality of their milk they should take off the cream before the milk became sour. The Swedes take the cream off at the end of 12 hours, and from that cream they manufacture that high class butter for which, in the London market, they obtain 3s 6d a pound. After taking the cream off at the end of 12 hours they let it stand for another twelve hours and cream it again. As to removing the cream it was not the oldfashioned way of putting the milk into a tin vessel, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, and letting it stand. It was put into an oblong vessel placed in cold water at a low temperature, and the cream was allowed to rise to the surface. They should never keep anything neai their dairies from which there was a smell, particularly sulphurtred hydrogen. There was nothing which absorbed odours like milk. In fact he had frequently seen dairies in New Zealand almost beside the dunghili. He had seen in this colony no less than five tons of butter lying in one mass, which if sent home to London would not sell at all> Unless as cart-grease^ Now here in New Zealand they had got the animals and the pasture and everything el?e that ' was necessary to the proiucti6n of highclass butter* In England^ as soon as the milk was taken from the cow it was immediately put through a separator, which separated the cfeam from the milk at the rate of about 60 gallons an hour. They Would have some difficulty in telling the skimmed milk, after it had passed through the separator, from milk fresh from the ttotfr-. The natural heat should always be taken ottl of the milk after it came from the cow by passing it through a cold water reservoir. There was about 4^ per cent of butter in natural milk. By the ordinary process of skimming about half the Imtter was lost ; whereas, by the DeLaVel, dr centrifugal separator process fully a half more wa? saved. He was pleased to notice that Waikato farmers were £oing in largely for dairy Factories, as such industries in a community like this were Very desirable, and tended very largely to the success of farming. If^ however-, they thought of taking ltd vantage tif the Ldndon market for their cheese they must produce a better article, ami something more in Unison with the English taste. The Americans at the present time were manufacturing cheese to suit the English taste. They were, however, robbing the English public, artd the latter did not know it-. They (the Americans) before making their cheese first took the butter out of the 1 milk by means of the separator, and supplied beef fat to" the extent of 4£ per cent, when, according to their idea, it becanie fresh, milk again. The milk was then made into cheese, and this article was now being used by the hundred tons in England at the present time, and he would defy anybody to tell the difference between this cheese and the ordinary cream cheese. It was perfectly healthy, and it was just as nutritious as the properly made article. — Waikato Times.