FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 28 March 1907, Page 4

FARM AND DAIRY.

BUTTER AND CHEESE. VIEWS OF AIL! J. G. HARKNESSDiscussing the Butter v. Cheese question with u Wellington ''Post" reporter Mr .1. (i. Harkness, secretary of the National D.iiry Association, said he thought tli.it the position with many of the factories making butter to-day. especially in the Taranaki districts, was that they were considering the advisability of putting in duplicate plants for the simple reason that the prices ruling for cheese, OUs a ewt, was giving the producer a very big advantage in price over the man who was supplying a butter factory. The advantage practically amounted at present to 3d a pound. The whole queston depended on what would be the price of cheese next year. Taking the present season and the last as a criterion, the suppliers to cheese factories had had considerably the best of it. Personally, under the circumstances, lie would not like to take the responsibility of advising anyone to change from butter to cheese without getting a guarantee, from the purchaser that he would take cheese for, say a couple of years, at a good price. One difficulty he saw in the wsy of a factory possessing duplicate plant was that while one was engaged in making one article, the other must he idle, and there was-no manufacturing plant that depreciated so quickly as dairying apparatus when not in use. It was utterly impossible to conduct the two operations simultaneously. For instance, it was a fatal mistake to make cheese, say, 'this season in a room or factory and make butter next season in the same place, for the room would have become affected by the cheese in such a way that the manufacture of butter there would not be advisable. To be done successfully, the dual manufacture must be carried on with separate plant, in separate buildings. Another difficulty was that a man who was an expert butter maker was not necessarily an expert cheese maker, and vice versa. The work could, pf course, be done In two separate buildings, with separate staffs, but then came the question of paying these two staffs. This would tend to reduce the amount that the factory could pay to Ihe supplier. He knew of one large factory in Taranaki where the shareholders were considering the advisability of changing from butter to ehejese. That would practically mean an outlay of £IO,OOO to £12,000. Then the whole butter plant would be idle, depreciating in value every year.

Canada was supplying England today with about 74 per cent of the cheese imported, and .New Zealand contributed only about 4 per cent. If Canada fell away by five per cent that would be an opportunity for New Zealand to get good prices. He did not consider, however, that New Zealand's small quota influenced the Home market in any way. This country's export was but a drop in the bucket. Let Canada increase her exports by five or ten per cent and New Zealand would have to ibe content with a very much low'er range of prices than this country has been getting lately. He did not know that there was any connection between the consumption of butter and cheese. There could be no question tliat the increased price obtained for cheese this year was owing principally to two factors—the shortage from Canada and the Chicago meat revelations. These American disclosures had probably stimulated the demand for cheese in the United Kingdom. It was' known, of course, that the Americans were making every effort to regain control of the market and p'ck up the trade that they had lost. The fact that they had appointed four hundred inspectors to supervise the meat business went to show that they were in earnest.