BUTTER-MAKING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 10 September 1907, Page 4

BUTTER-MAKING.

A REVOLUTIONARY PRINCIPLE. A very interesting leaflet recently issued by the Dairy Division of the Canadian Department of Agriculture tells of a series of experiments which have I been conducted in Canada in connection [with the manufacture of sweet cream jbutter, the results of which have been very satisfactory. Brieily, the process adopted was to pasteurise the cream direct iroin the separator, to employ a commercial culture to control the flavor and to churn thj cream at once. While the experiments threw new light on an interesting principle, the Canadian Dairy Commissioner is not advocating its adoption The Canadian experience recalls the fact that the Dairy Division of this country has already 'experimented in the same direction, the system liaving been tested several years ago. The results then obtained were not considered satisfactory, and it was thought that in a country like New Zealand, so far removed from its market, as good results were not likely to l>e obtained as where butter was made within much shorter distances of the consumer. At the last Auckland Winter Show, however, butter made under a somewhat similar process as that adopted by the Canadian experimenters was said to have the cleanest flavor of any butter in the show; in fact, so impressed was the Dairy Division with its quality that it was decided to again test the principle in this country. Experiments will consequently be carried out by the State experts this season. While the principle may lie all that is claimed for it, the general adoption of it presents a decided danger, and factory managers will require to exercise great caution before discarding their present method in its favor. Where the milk is of absolutely clean flavor, there would be every possibility of butter made under the new mode being successful, and even more so than under the present process. The milk, however, must be of absolutely clean flavor to enable the cream to be churned successfully in a clean condition, even where the flavor is safeguarded, as in the Canadian experiments, by pasteurisation, and a good commercial standard employed. No factory, it should be pointed out, will be able to undertake the manufacture of butter under the new process unless it is equipped with a firstclasa pasteurising plant and means of rapidly and efficient controlling the temperature of the cream. On the face of it (says the agricultural editor of the New Zealand Times) the manufacture of butter from sweet cream is captivating, but if not carried out under ideal conditions it will probably give a less satisfactory result than the method now general in the colony. Factory managers, therefore, would do well to await the result of the experiments about to be conducted by the Department, for these should prove the advantage or otherwise of the new method when condncted under New Zealand conditions.