FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 76, 20 September 1911, Page 2

FARM AND DAIRY

THE ART OF.SOFT CHEESE

MAKING. Quite unknown in New Zealand is the art of soft cheese-making, although in the Old Country it runs into millions per annum. The reason for this is simple. In the past we have imported only specialists in hard cheese-making, ailu no soft cheese has been made in the Dominion worth sneaking of. The .Stilton and other valuable soft cheeses are unknown quantities to the mass of the people; indeed, hundreds of thousands of our people have never seen, much less tasted, a soft cheese in their lives. The addition of this branch of the cheese-maker's art to the industry would add thousands to the receipts, of our dairymen. All that was wanted was the opportunity of getting a qualified teach, er, and that opportunity is now with us. The arrival in New Zealand of Miss G. Nest Dairies, for two years instructress in soft cheese-making at the Lleweni Hall Dairy School, gives the Department an opportunity of still further extending its sphere of usefulness, which we hope it will not be slow to avail itself of. Few people know that one gallon of milt will make one pound of Stilton cheese, that sells at Is per pound, as easily as it will make one pound ol Cheddar, that sells at <id; and fewer still know that one gallon of rich cream can be turned into 12s Od worth of cream cheese, while the beautiful mild Cheshirt cheese is quite unknown to the average colonial. In all these fancy cheeses Miss' Davics is a specialist, and for two years she was solely engaged at Lleweni teaching the art. We hope that the Government will see the wisdom of at once securing this lady's services, so that the full benefit of her teaching may .be made available to all those dairymen who can see their way to engage in the niore profitable branches of the industry, which circumstances in the past have rendered impossible. We are sure that such an opportunity would be received with universay approval throughout the whole Dominion, and we trust that no time will be lost in making it.—Dairyman.

THE BUYING CAMPAIGN. (Short, sharp, and incisive are the words that most aptly describe this season's buying campaign. It practically ended with the record purchase of the Kl'tluim's output of 8/iO tons of butter at ll%d. Never, in the wildest imaginings of the most sanguine, we think, was it dreamed that we should see such an enormous price bid for a New Zealand factory output, and this sale is a further illustration of the 'truth of the adage that ''it is the unexpected that happens." One curious innovation lias been caused by the abnormal demand this year—namely, that houses that in Idle past never deviated from (he system of open consignment have come into the market as buyers, and it is said that a good deal of the butter bought is to go to the Continent to return to Kngland as best French or Normandy rolls, bin this detail need not trouble the .factories. iSoine few factories have loyally stuck to the open consignment policy, and it is to be hoped that their loyalty will receive its due reward, for it reipiired more than an ordinary amount, of courage to refuse the offers that have been ho freely made this season. The price of ll%d is equal to 120s in London for the whnk; season. I'p to the present no such average has ever been made, and those factories that have done so well are. sincerely to be congratulated. With cheese almost as good results have been obtained, the highest price beim' equal to 0(1 1'.0.b. This price niil have suppliers, a handsome prolit on the coming season's work, and it may certainly be said with much emphasis that never have the prospects of the dairymen of New Zealand looked quite so rosy as they do j now. I