FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 49, 7 June 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY

THE DAIRY YEAR. A GRATIFYING RECORD. NATIONAL DAIRY ASSOCIATION REVIEW. The season now drawing to a close (says the annual report of the National Dairy Association), lias, in many directions, been conspicuous as compared with previous years. The New Zealand output of butter has increased by 15.08 per cent. (2209 tons) .against an increase of So'.ll per cent, in Australia, and G. 14 per cent, in Argentina. The expansion in Australia is conclusive proof of the Commonwealth's .potentialities when fa- , vored with good seasons and conditions adapted to the manufacture of butter. A FINE PROSPECT.

"The prominent iposition attained by the dairying industry in the Southern Hemisphere and its value to the individual and the State is gratifying. It may, however, be suggested," adds the report, "that such rapid development will have a tendency to reduce values to a lower level. This would be true if the population of the older countries remain stationary. They are increasing, with the result that the supply made locally is unequal to meet the demand. Hence some countries have be come importers that were once exporters, others have reached the limit of their capacity in manufacturing, and we are face to face with new demands and fresh markets, which can only be met by those countries that are in process of development and colonisation. The position at present is encouraging, and the prospect for the .producer was probably never better." THE CHEESE POSITION. The export of cheese represents the gratifying increase of 40'.85 per ueiu. It is a matter for congratulation, says the report, that the faults indicated have ibeen so few, and the general quality and condition when landed have been so favorably approved. Conipiu.nn. is made of the weak packages used by many factories. OVERSEA CARRIAGE.

Acording to the report the contract fortnightly steamers have maintained regular time-table dates. Where the departure of the steamers has ibeen delayed it has been due to the difficulty of getting forward dairy produce in time for transhipment. ,A new shipping contract has foeen entered into at the old rate, tout the new arrangement (provides for paying of coastal freight, even should this exceed 10s iper ton; the arrival in London in the second week oi November each year of a, contract steamer in place of the third week in December; and the despatch of a weekly steamer during the month of December and January. The last proviso is the beginning of a regular weekly shipment which will be necessary in the very near future if the industry maintains its present rate of development.

MOISTURE IX BUTTER. Dairy farmers need hardly be told that the moisture-in-hutter problem is not confined to New Zealand. Just now Victorians are reviewing the whole ques- • tion and factory concerns there are looking askance at the advice of Mr. Lockyer that butter should be made to a standard of 14 per cent, of moisture, instead of 1G per cent, as heretofore. Mr Lockyer is the Assistant ComptrollerGeneral of Customs and his advice was given on the strength of a complaint — only one complaint, it is said—made in England. Amongst other papers the Australasian is opposed to Mr. Lockyer's suggestion. The British standard is 10 per cent.; consequently, this standard is adopted by Denmark, by Australia, and by practically all exporters to the London market. On the average Victorian butter "working to" a standard of 16 per cent, contains only 12% to 13 per cent, of moisture when exported. in recent years the Commonwealth has been exporting, as an annual average, about 60 million pounds weight of butter, worth more than £2,500,000 each year; most of it went to the United Kingdom, yet in the United Krnguum there have been only two prosecutions for the sale of Australian butter containing excessive moisture. "This export trade is one which still requires stimulating. Great as we imagine wir dairying industry to be," our contemporary goes on to say, "yet in 1008 it still supplied the United Kingdom with less than one-sixth of the butter importled thither, and the vast markets in Eastern countries absorbed butter to the value of £152,000 only. Mr. Lockyer has made a mountain of a moJe-hill, in advising, for such, a slight reason, a drastic change, which would mc;;n a loss of £104,000 a year (at the very lowrest estimate) to Australian dairymen."