THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 170, 17 January 1912, Page 7

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

FACTORY METHODS.

INTERESTING REVIEW BY THE COMMISSIONER,

i Mr. D. Cuddie. director of the Dairy i Division of the Department of Agricul- • ture, speaking at the meeting, of the • South Island Dairy Association at Christchurch on Thursday, said he had great i, pleasure in associating himself with the conference which enabled his department to keep in touch with the producer. As . regards grading stores, he was a firm be- , liever in the open door policy, which enabled a man with a little practice to become qualified for the work of judging ! the different grades. The division en- [ couraged the system and his experience had been that the factory managers who , attended these inspections ithe most fre- . quently turned out the best quality. The , policy of- the Department was to push the work on as much as possible. The standard of grading had risen of late, ■ but there was room for improvement. ( When faults had been found in any [ particular brand of gutter the inspectors i had always gone to' the factory and ; righted, the defect. He was sorry that , his staff was not as large as he would , have liked to cope with the Industry. For various reasons dairying in Canterbury had not grown during the past ten ; years as he would have liked. In 1910 . there was as much butter turned out as , in 1911, but cheese showed an increase of 300 per cent. Apparently the time was not far distant when the dairying i industry- would grow. The province favored the settler in many other pur J suits, but no doubt the cutting up of many large estates would offer more extension. He had no hesitation in Saying that those going in for the industry would get good returns, for at the pre- . sent time tho producer could not keep I with the demand. THE HOME MARKET. The London market last year had been very, satisfactory and the reports had , been highly encouraging. The quality of the cheese had .been well 1 spoken of . as far as grading was concerned, but the time was not ripe for producers to run away with the idea that they had reached perfection. In view of the com- ' petition from other centres it was important that every effort should be made to bring about an improvement. One weak point was the milk supply. He knew of several people who took a great deal of care in this respect, but there were many others who were not too careful and it was unfair for the former to have his milik mixed at the factory, with the inferior article. The Department would make every effort to extend the work of instructors to farms, and he could say that during the past two years good results had .been achieved. ' INSPECTION OF FARMS. Last year 3500 farms had been visited. In one district out of sixty farms it had been found that forty of them had their stands erected in wrong places and there was a danger of the milk becoming contaminated. Pressure had been brought to bear, and the result was that the arrangements were now ifar more sanitary. Speaking of the factory methods, Mr. Cuddie said that as a general rule, where carried out on up-to-date lines, a large amount of good had been done. During the past two years there had been a marked progress in the pasteurisation of cream for butter making, with the result that it was getting, more uniform and better-ikeeping butter was .being produced than previously. Unless th.e system was carried " on the correct way it was better left alone. _ Mistakes were often made in ] Skimming too heavily. The contra of acid in cream was a most important matter. A number of tests made showed that more attention was needed in this respect. Cheese made under the alkaline test was a good l guide, and the butter-maker should be persuaded t'O make close observations, of the alkaline method. There were also the necessity of seeing that the temperature was. correct. CHEESE. In briefly referring to the expansion of the cheese industry, Mr. Cuddie said C that in 1900 5000 tons had been manufactured, tat in 1911 it had grown to 30,000 tons. From January 3rd there had been an increase of 23 per cent., but butter had fallen off about 19 per cent. This was no doubt due to bad weather. Mr. Cuddie referred to the 1 recent innovation of an instructor in { soft cheesemaking, which he said many people viewed under a misapprehension. Soft cheese, with few exceptions, must be sold directly after being manufactured. When people became acquainted with fancy cheese there would probably be a jrood market for it locally, and in time it would add value to the dairvin<r 11 industry. Regarding the question' of cow-testing, Mr. Cuddie stated that last, year over 5000 cows had been tested % and it was expected that this year the number would be increased to 10.000. The results were being watched verv closely. During the past twelve months « one company in the north had started manufacturing casein. It was at the C present juncture too early to offer an opinion on another product.