HIGH CLASS FLAVOUR IN BUTTER.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4343, 1 December 1908, Page 2

HIGH CLASS FLAVOUR IN BUTTER.

The demand for the very finest of flavours in our butter is a matter which involves so much care and detailed attention, that perhaps we should consider it as almost too much of an obstructing element in the perfecting of our butter industry, were it not for the substantial rewards to be won along the linen of producing abutterof unimpeachable , flavour- When we look a few years back and recall the days when the pet cat was made free of the milk pail, when the milk was permitted to stand anywhere about in the living room, (we have even heard of its being stood in the bedroom,) when milk utensils sometimes presented interiors which did not bear, though they invited, inspection; and when we contrast this state of things with the high standard of cleanliness now regarded as indispensible we see plainly how it has come to pass that Dominion butter has gained such a degree of excellence as to commend the prices it has commanded in the

London market. We are not saying of course that all our Dominion dairyfarmeis conform full with the standard of cleanliness demanded by the greater enlightenment of the time, but we are saying that so far as advance in the standard of cleanliness has been realised, the reward of that advance has not tarried.

Fineness of flavour is a thing so easily impaired, that too much care can hardly be taken by the farmer to prevent the flavour being interfered with, either by strong food flavours or by contamination at, or after the time o milking. Food flavours cannot be entirely avoided, but they can be sensibly decreased if care is taken that strong flavoured foed* are not administered either at the time of \ milking or immediately before, j When the use of strong flavoured j foods cannot be avoided, the farmer should take care to arrange the feeding time after the imilking and not before. By having the animals feed soon after they are milked time is allowed for the strong food flavours to pass off before the next milking time comes round. If on the other hand the cows are feed just before, or during milking time the flavour passes into the milk Another wise precaution is that of giving the cows some rough forage, in addition to the strong flavoured foods so as to minimise the pungency of their flavour. These food flavours, though they reduce the market value of the butter, do not render it unwholesome in t le sense in which it is rendered unwholesome by bacterial infection. v For the filth germs by which the. milk has been seeded, owing to - exposure to contamination from half cleaned vessels, or from impure smells, or any other form of uncleanliness, are possesed of the power of rapid reproduction. It therefore devolves upon the individual supplier to observe the utmost care in keeping aloof all contaminating influences. All the more does it devolve upon the supplier to observe a high standard of eljanliness, in that the butter exported from the Dominion has a journey of some sixty days to the London market.' In' view of this fact it will be seen how necessary it is that the nnst scrupulous care should be taken to avoid the introduction of any deleterious elements. We do not advocate the application to the butter industry of the Dominion of harsh and oppressive regulations, but at the same time we would remind the dairy farmers of the necessity of observing the spirit of assiduous care of which some of oir dairying legislation has been a clumsy exposition. Our recent scoring upon the London market should act as a very powerful stimulus to greater efforts to secure the first reputation tof our butter.