THE NGARUAWAHIA BUTTER FACTORY.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 325, 9 August 1898, Page 2

THE NGARUAWAHIA BUTTER FACTORY.

When we recently paid a visit to the Ngaruawahia Butter Factory the start for the present season .had been made, and the staff were then busily employed converting the first consignment of the season. Judging by the " spic and span" appearance of all things in and around the factory the Manager, Mr Morris, must have had a busy time during the vacation, at the cleaning, painting where necessary, and generally making sundry alterations and additions to plant and surroundings as the past season's experience had pointed out as necessary. The most casual observer could not fail to remark the extreme care and attention to the sanitary conditions displayed in all the appointments. Everything that can possibly he devised for doing away with any risk of objeetional odout* certainly appears to have been clone, and no donbt the high standard of excellence now pertaining to the N.Z. Dairy Association butter is due to no small extent to this attention to detaiU. We were agreeably surprised to learn that the output last season at the Ngaruawahia factory exceeded that acPukekohe by a little over 100 tons. The quantity handled at Ngaruawahia was 440 tons and at Pukekohe 340 tons—7Bo tons of butter—these .ire large figures. Take this, say, at £9O per ton, and it figures up to £70,000. Mr Spragg, the general manager, who left a few months ago on a business trip co Europe, is expected back again about the eud of this month, and we were told that one of the principal objects of his visit was to enquire into the pasteurisition question, more particularly as to its effect in freeing milk or cream of the unpleasant odours arising from the feeding of turnips, etc., to dairy stock. As Mr Morris pointed out, simply scalding the milk or cream up to 175 degrees Fahr. did not effectually rid the product of th'V odour, and to treat either milk or cream at a higher temperature would, as he put it, " burn it' —a condition, we presume, that would render it useless tor butter-making. It is sincerely to be hoped that Mr Spragg may bring with him a satisfactory solution to this question, as under such altered conditions it would materially assist the industry and make the business a much more profitable one for milk suppliers, and the difficulty now experienced of keeping the factories running all the year round would be disposed of.