FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 28 November 1907, Page 3

FARM AND DAIRY.

THE MANUFACTURERS OF CHEESE. AN OPEN LETTER. Th editor of the "Xew Zealand Dairyman" has forwarded to Mr. T. L J oil Okaiawa, South Taranaki, the followim' open letter:— ° Sir,—Whether you know it or not, allow me to tell you that you are easily the largest private cheesemaker in the world to-day. If there are losses goin« on in the manufacture that can be avoid" ed, you are, therefore, the heaviest loser in the world. For the present, I wish you to accept my assurance that there are losses going on in the cheesemakin" industry in this Dominion that can be avoided, and because you are the principal sufferer, 1 am addressing myself to you. I want you to understand that what 1 have to say is not to be taken as any rellection on your manager and stall. I will say at onee .that they know as much about their business as any other men in the trade; but if the avoidable losses in your business are .t/000 a year, that fact does not help you very much. The losses are vours ,11l H„. „.,,,,„ \t ~_ . ' '

all the same. j\ow, you know, because you learned it from me, that Air. C. A Ross, late of Cardiff Dairy Factory, and now of the Dairy Commissioner's staff, tried, at my suggestion, the experiment of making cheese from the night's and morning's milk separately, and that the result was that lie got nearly 11 per cent, more cheese from the night's milk than the mornings, although the quantity and the qualily of t j le two lots were practically the same. j. have been thinking over this matter a good deal since 1 nrst raised the point and 1 have come to the conclusion that the cheeseiuakers of the world are perpetuating an error that has been handed down to tliem from their grandmothers and their grandmothers' mothers before them. The error, I think, is this: In the prehistoric days of cheesemaking wnen every farmer made his own milk into cheese, it was customary, and indeed, necessary, to save the milk from two or more milkings, so as to have a

suihcient quantity of milk on which to start operations. Now, this is what 1 think is the mistake, in the intercuts ot yourself and the cheescmakers of the world, I wish you to find out whether or not this is correct. You can do so in this way: Let your excellent manager (Mr. Black) go to one of your cheese lactones, ana Jet him direct that all the night's milk shall be put into one set ol vats and all the morning's milk into another set. Let the work of making .the uiglit's milk be gone on with at once; but do not begin operations on the morning's milk until it is twelve hours' old. if you will have him turn cold water round the vats in which the morning's milk is, so much the better. H you find the result of the two sets of vats is practically the same, you will be able to say, "Abracadabra; !• have found it." If the results do not turn out as I have suggested, you will be no worse off; but if, as I venture to think, the results will turn out as 1 suggest, you will be very much better oil it my theory proves correct. If I am right, all I want in return is a letter to that effect, bo that it may be published for the good of eheesemakers in geueral.-I am, etc., F. \y. b. GREULLE, Editor "New Zealand Dairy, man." ' r.a.—Although this letter is addressed specifically to Mr. Joll, it is quite open to the manager of any co-opera-tive factory to try the same experiment; but if any of them do, I wish to make it a point of honour with them to notity me before any one else of the result.—F.W.B.G.

MILKING MACHINES THEIR EFI'ECT ITOX THE QUALITY A preliminary scries of experiments aiming to determine the quality and quantity of milk produced when milking machines were used as reported in Bulletin 47 of the Storrs Station The experiments were limited in number, and in the words of the writer no conclusions should be drawn from so limited an experience. Regarding the results obtained the bulletin says:— _ In many of the experiments, ttie keeping quality of the milk was determined by the number of hours which it would keep before curdling, when kept at J constant temperature of 70deg. Fall. In the majority of cases the machine>.rawn milk kept :onger than tin- milk I which was drawn by hand. When t.'is was not always true, it was so in most canes, even when the germ content ;'■ V'V'n" 1 I™ 5 as hi S' l <"• Wgher tluu that of the hand-drawn milk. This is illustrated in the ease where the average germ content of the machine-drawn' milk was 55,000 and the hand-drawn milk o!l00 bacteria per cubic centimeter. J u spite of this, the machine drawn samples kept on an average of 59 hours before they curdled, while the handdrawn milk averaged but is hours. A similar relation is shown in other instances.

Ihe grealest difference in the keeping quality was shown where the cotton filters wore used and the <»erm content of the machine milk averted much lower than that of the hand niTlk. In this series of experiments, while the milk drawn by hand curdled on an average of lit! hours, that drawn by machine kept 72 hours before curdling. The first experience in the use 'or these machines is as much a test of the skiMof the operator as of the efficiency of the method. From the experience thus far gained lietter results are anticipated in the future. Particular attention must be given to the proper adjustment of the teal cups and mouth-pieces to the size of the teats of each cow. Each cow should always be stripped out dean by hind immediately after removing the machine. The failure to do this systematically no doubt affected the yields in certain eases. The constant stream of visitors and sightseers no doubt had some effect upon results.

IMPROVING HIS POSITION. (From the "Dairyin u.") A Forty-Mile Bush farnur recently wrote us about improving the prolits of his dairying operations. He had been milking sixty cows, and selling his but-ler-fat for B'/ad per lb. He had an idea •that something bettor than this might be done. His letter to us followed. Today he is making his milk into cheese, lie has sold his whole season's output at. (id per lb. which some Of the best factories would like to do. He is making for his butter-fat Is 3d per lb, and [ out of tlrs he'has to bear the cost of milking I lie cheese, which will not exceed 3d per lb of butter-fat, after allowing a pretty considerable margin for v.-ir and tear, interest, and depreciaii:n. There are thousands of farmers who eouhl do as well an this man, if they had only the coura;; 1 ! t> strike out for themselves. We hj"" n;"angemcnts made to cable for a :'r-( "hiss lady cheeseniaker for the ':•>• firmer who would like ftp get :> ■' : 'ling net for his butter-fat, Instead of 'ld.

growls /.2: t j:' low tests. There has been considerable growling amongst suppliers of milk to factories throughout the Dominion during the last few weeks, and at Otaki it was considered advisable to get one of the departmental experts to investigate. The investigation showed that full justice had been done to the farmer.!, but the tests all round were low. We wou'd not have taken notice of this small ma! tcr only that it gives us an opportunity of again reminding dairymen that, although you cannot feed fat into milk, it is llic easiest tiling in the world lo "starve fat out of milk." And this is what has l">en going on at Otaki. and in most other puts o;' \""v ealaiul. Speaking after an extensive and varied experience of twenty years, we may say that we never saw cattle before in such low condition at this time of the year. The lesson from tin's is obvious: More must bo made for winter feci.

WI iT A HOT DAY COSTS AT A BIG CHEESE FACTORY. It is interesting to work out the losses as proved by Mr. Gw'llim's Australian experience on the output of a factory like some, of our largest chcesenuiking concerns, where the. milk recoived is twelve times as much' aB It was in Itr. Clwillim's little factory. That gentleman received daily 50001b of milk, and on this quantity his losses often amounted to 30s per day. So that, I akin" this as a standard, a real hot day and a muggy night costs from '£lß to' £2O at Riverdale. At other fac-

tories, where the total intake at the different branches is even greater in the ' aggregate than at Eiverdale, the losses j can safely be set down at £1 10s for every HOOgals of milk received. Our representative in the Commonwealth, Mr. Alan M'Neil, saya that the cheesemen I oil tl» otto side are greatly, perturbed

at the result of the experiments carried out by Mr. Ross, at Cardiff. They can understand that one lot of milk (that of the previous night) made more cheese than that of the following morning. They are not surprised at that. But I hey want further investigation. It is suggested by these cheeseiuakers that uuother experiment should be tried—this time with two lots of morning's milk, one cooled immediately after milking and the other taken straight away without cooling.—"Dairyman."