DAIRY SKIMMINGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 336, 23 January 1889, Page 3

DAIRY SKIMMINGS.

Advantages of the Creamery System. — "It is the same with butter as'with all other products, a uniform quality coupled with quantity will always createam'arketdemand, ' says a dairy writer. ' ' In this the creamery has a great advantage over the individual dairy. To illustrate— l have in mind a gathered cream factory in this Scate that produced 2,000 pounds of butter a day during the month of June of this -year, and the entire make was sold on track at the creamery for twenty cents per pound. If the patrons who produced the cream had' made the ! butter at the individual dairy they could not have realised more than eleven or twelve cents per pound, provided they had all made a good quality. The advantage of uniformity of colour, flavour, texture and salt, together with quantity, is being appreciated by the dairymen of Vermont, who have always followed the individual dairy system, but are now adopting the gathered cream system of ©roameries with satisfactory results." Thoroughness in Dairy Farming. — If New Zealand dairy farmers would take a high position as producers of butter and cheese they must remember'that itwill notdo to have any weak spot in their system of management. Good cows, good food for them, , cleanliness in cowshed and dairy, the best proved methods of manufacture of butter and cheese, are each and all equally necessary parts of a, proper system that cannot fail to secure success. If the New Zealand Farmer does not aid in carrying out such a system it is only because it is not sufficiently read and studied. Age of Cream and Churning. — It is claimed now by good authority that the age of cream has much to do with the time I needed in churning, so that if cream that has just been taken off is put in the churn with a lot that has set a few days to ripen, the new cream will remain in the buttermilk after the old cream is sufficiently churned. This has been shown by churning the butter milk from mixed cream. Grain for Dairy Cows. — Professor Brown is of the opinion that the dairy world has yet to be taught that the extensive use of grain is not correct economically ; that a large quantity of a mixture of roots with hay fodder is both economical and safe for milch cow 3; and that possibly there is better health with rootfe, though a slightly inferior quality of milk. Salt for Cows. — One of the uses of giving cows salt, especially in hot weather, is that it acts as a preservative in the system. Everyone accustomed to test milk can tell by its flavour whether the cows have been getting their salt. There is no doubt, whatever, that the neglect of "salting the cows" spoils the butter and injures the milk for the cheese factory. Keeping Butter Cool. — A writer says that a simple mode of keeping butter in warm w eather is to invert a large crock of earthenware, or a flower pot, if need be (varying with thesizeof the vessel containing the butter), over the dish or firkin in which the butter is held. The porousness of the earthenware will keep the butter cool, and all the more so if the pot be wrapped in a wet cloth, with a little water in the dish with the butter. Not the porosity of the earthenware, but the rapid absorption of heat by external evaporation, causes the butter to become hard. Cows for Special Purposes.— A dairy cow, says the Jersey Bulletin t well adapted to the purpose for which she is intended, will never attract the eye of the practical butcher. The two great interests, beef production and that of milk and butter, are diametrically opposed. There is no breed of animals yet discovered that covers the ground successfully for the combined purpose of beef and milk. If dairy cows are bred and reared carefully there is but little danger of failures. The * general purpose ' cow, that we formerly heard more about than we do now, ia entirely out of her element in the herd of the dairyman. Such cows are of but little value in any capacity. The dairyman sells her to the butcher to avoid a more serious loss and not because he is paid for the expense of fattening her. Experience and carefully kept figures are 'indisputable proofs of these assertions. Cream Separators. — After the several trials and important competitions held in 1887, when the Royal Agricultural Society offered a special prize of £25, and the Bath and West of England Society and British Dairy Farmers' Association each offered a gold medal for the best cream separators, it is not surprising that there should have been a lull the following year, and up to the end of September no competition has been held. The Laval machines won all the above-named prizes in 1887, as well as the Lord Mayor's champion cup at the London Dairy Show. The only gold medal awarded in 1888 was at the show of the Liverpool and Lancashire Society, held at Lancaster in September, where the judges awai'ded the Dairy Supply Company, Limited, a special gold medal- for their extensive exhibits of the several kinds of separators for hand and power, including the " Baby," the " Newcastle Royal," the " Windsor," the " Al," the " Reading Royal " machines, and the steam turbine separators known as the " Oscar " and the " Gustavus." En awarding the medal, the judges reported that, not only is the design of the De Laval Separators good, but the workmanship and finish are excellent. An immense boon to the users of tiese machines was introduced this year by the Dairy Supply Company, Limited, for the first time, in the Working Dairy at the Glasgow Exhibition, and also exhibited at Lancaster, where, by a simple attachment, the power separators are enabled to raise the separated milk 16ft, as it flows from the machine. This is very handy for dairy factories, where it is necessary to manipulate it for cheese-making or other purposes on a higher floor. Manitoba Wheat Production. — Writing to the Agricultural Gazette, on the 1887 harve&t in Manitoba, Dpminion of Canada, a correspondent says:-"l personally know men who had from 40 to 50 bushels of wheat to the acre, and the average for the whole province was about 30 bushels to the acre. This is extraordinary when we take into consideration the somewhat i rough-and-ready way in which farming is carried on in a new country. The total export of wheat from Manitoba from the harvest of 1887 amounts to about 13,000,000 bushels ; the year before it was about 3,000,000 bushels. Taking into account wheat, oats, barley, flax, potatoes, etc., the total export is 1 , put down at 25,000,000 bushels. Seven years since the country was comparatively uninhabited. Surely this greas progress indicates the possibilities of Manitoba, and it ought to be a relief to farmers, and indeed, to the British publio, to know that there is one portion of the empire where farmers may go and make a good living. - »

Yolunfceer regiments. an,d battalions throughput the colony have been dissolved, and the officers transferred with their present rank and seniority to the unattached list, A sugar syndicate has been registered to watch legislation and assist in the adjustment of subsidies and drawbacks and to re- * press adulterations.