MANUFACTURE OF RENNET.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1916, Page 6

MANUFACTURE OF RENNET.

CALVES' VELLS TO AH PREPARED IN NEW ZEALAND. __ A now industry is being .started in New Zealand; tile preparing of tlie raw material for tlie making of rennet. i Rennet is a preparation used in cheesemaking. Tts chief constituent is a ferment \\i: i is found in tlie stomach of a number o, iinimals, and is specially abundant in and easily procurable from calves' stomachs. So far New Zealand has depended for ! fs supplies of rennet upon Sweden, Holland, and Denmark. These countries have gob most of their stomachs (called veils) from Russia and Poland. The war has now stopped that source of supply. Russia has, no doubt, prohibited the'slaughtering of calves, and, any way, even if the calves were available,' the dislocation of trade has upset the shipping arrangements. For the season shortly to commence New Zealand has enough rennet in stock or on the water. But to ensure a supply for subsequent seasons it has been deemed advisable to start operations within our own borders. Hence the formation of the New Zealand Co-operative Rennet Company at a meeting of dairy companies held at Palmerston North'last month. Practically every company represented at the meeting consented to take shares and the project may be regarded as fairly launched. A legal difficulty has cropped up, it being found that the articles of association do not allow any of these' companies to take shares, but it is understood that the Oovcrament arc bringing in legislation to at once give this power. The idea is not to make rennet in the Dominion, but to supply the veils from which the rennet, is made by a chemical process, and send the veils to England to be so treated. The veil is the fourth stomaeli of the calf. Only the veils from sucking or I milk-fed calves ire valuable for this purpose. The veils of calves raised on Igrass or other solid foods are not suitable. Calves slaughtered for their veils should not be less than three or four days old. Instructions have already been given to the Agricultural Department to place experts at the disposal of farmers by giving demonstrations at suitable Centres showing how to separate the veil and prepare it for export. The air-drying method is to be used. A veil so prepared is very like the toy bladder that children play with, only a bit thicker and traversed by veins and scams of fatty-look-ing matter. It resembles the toy bladder in the rough. Chemically treated it yields the rennet that is necessary in ?heesemaking. There is no difficulty ahead as to the Gupply of calves. At present they are slaughtered by the thousand in New Zea- | land and unite wasted. Upwards of .'i(!,i)00 gallons of rennet is required for our present output of cheese. For some ef the particulars above cited we rely on an article by Mr. D. Cuddie in the December number of the Journal of Agriculture. NO RESTRICTION Of TIME. When the War I.cgi-htion Amendment Bill was before the Legislative Council on Friday the clause permitting dairy companies to engage in the manufacture of rennet, casein, boxes, etc.. was slighth altered. In the original clause it was provided that such manufacturing powers should apply only during the duration ot the. war and for six months thereafter, but this limitation wis thrown out- of the Bill, thus enabling dairy companies to manufacture such articles without any restriction ox timc. When the Bill returned to the House of Representatives the Prime Minister explained the change, of which, he said, he quite approved. Rennet, he added, was' Vital to the cheese-making factories, and owing to the war its price had gone sip he thought at least 20 times what it was two years ago. There were tens of thousands of calves in New Zealand that could be used for the manufacture of rennet. And the introduction of the industry would hav<> the effect of leading more calves to be reared—at any rate, to a certain age. He hoped at least i00,0l.\) extra calves would be reared in the coming season. We should certainly rear enough of them to build up a substantial industry. The amendment made by the Legislative Council was ag'.'eed to.