A FEW HINTS HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 122, 31 March 1879, Page 2

A FEW HINTS HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER.

[I!Y J. 11. MONRAI).]

Re-arrived in the Colonies after having worked at, and seen, some of the best dairies in Denmark and Sweden, where dairy-produce is becoming a very important part of the farmers' revenue, I was very much astonished by the fluctuating butter prices—this fluctuation not being limited to a few pence, but extending from Gd to Is Gd per lb. This may partly be accounted for by the general custom of letting the cows calf at spring time, making the milk plentiful in summer and scarce in winter; yet I was at once convinced that the chief cause must bo sought in the making of the butter. Having ascertained how a great many treat _ the milk, I have strong cause to believe that a few hints on butter making would be welcome to inexperienced dairymen, and, I flatter myself, that even those who know how to make good butter, will be able to find a useful hint. The reason why dairy farming (either for butter or cheese making) is not more extensive in a country where the land (consequently grass) is very cheap-where there is no need of stables, and whore the summer heat is not oppressive tlie reason, I fancy, must be sought in the difficulty of getting men (maids being nearly out of the question) to milk; men that conscientiously will milk " clean men that will treat the cows with the necessary kindness and patience; men that will stick to the job for a whole year. Nothing annoys the cows more than change of milkman. For this reason it is, I presume, that you see this original contest between the calf and the milkman who is to have the most—in which contest, I am sure, the culf, thanks to the motherly instinct of the cow, always gets the best of it.

The calf, when it is big enough, will milk " clean "—death only will prevent the calf from sticking,to that job. When beef is the main object, I daresay- it is the best system to let the calves suck and get the whole of the milk; however this may be, most of the batter is made by smaller settlers who are milking their own cows. As before said, most of the milk coining in in summer—there is a large surplus to

the local demand', and the butter, as a rule, very soon turns rancid, making it impossible to keep it for winter use, You will hear the shopkeepers complain of loss on butter bought at Cd per lb, while at Home scarcely a pound of butter is Bold under Is,

The remedy is, then—To make really good butter that will keep for winter use in the towns, and when that market is supplied we can export, for we are not farther from South America, Africa, and Cliina than Denmark,' from where the Scandinavian Preserving Butter Company in 1875 exported two millions of lbs at a price from Is 3d to 2s. Retail price at Capetown, so I was told, being 4s.

[To be Continued.]