LAST SEASON'S BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 28 August 1907, Page 4

LAST SEASON'S BUTTER.

THE QUESTION OF QUALITY

THE OPINION OF MB. HABKNESS.

The question or" the general quality of New Zealand butter uf the past season is at present attracting considerable at | tention in dairying circles. Asked whether he had heard of more complaints than usual in regard to the quality of New Zealand butter last season Mr. Harkness (Secretary of the National Dairy Association) said he had, and believed there were some grounds for them. In saying this he quite recognised that the people who bought our butter last year lost heavily on their transactions, and naturally they found fault with the quality, whereas had the produce been sold at a profit, nothing would have been heard of an depreciation. On the other hand, complaints had been received which were not the result of bad bargains, and the information had not come from' a biased source. Again, it might only be a matter of opinion; for instance, last season's cheese, in the judgment of those who ought to know, was neither what we would like it to be, nor what we would consider quite up to the mark. Yet. strange to say, complaints in reference to cheese had been few and far between. The faults found had been in connection with shrinkage. The buyers had been making a good profit out of it, which accounted, no doubt, for the satis-

faction expressed in regard to its quality. The latest cablegrams from London, said Mr. Harkness, showed that New Zealand cheese was realising 00s to 61s, as against 56s and 57s quoted for Canadian. This might be accounted for by the fact that the New Zealand product was more matured than the Canadian at present reaching British markets. Do you consider New Zealand butter in general has shown a deterioration In quality ovr that of the previous season? Mr. Harkness was asked. He said there had been more complaints in regard to butter stored locally this year than in previous seasons. Of course, the past season was, in some respects, against the manufacture of a high-class butter. In the first place it was a phenomenal season for grass, which might have perhaps induced an extraordinary growth of

grasses and plants not suitable for the production of good flavoured milk. A great quantity of milk was rejected by some factories owing to the warm weather rendering it unfit for manufac tilling into sound butter, and the presumption was that a good deal of this inferior milk was taken in by some con-

cerns. Generally speaking, the average quality of last season's butter was no : : what it should have been. It was imperative that we should manufacture a good keeping butter, and certainly our butter of last season did not keep well. The question of butter quality was, however, surrounded by innumerable difficulties, and we would never be In possession of the information we should have concerning if till we had expert supervision at the Home end, with an experimental station in the colony.—New Zealand Times.