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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 68

[introduction]

In a country like Great Britain, where circumstances vary very considerably, it may be to the advantage of the fanners of one district to support a creamery, and to those in another to contribute to a milk-factory, which may be either co-operative or proprietary.

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It may, similarly, answer the purpose of butter-factors in other parts of the country to conduct a blending-house, receiving the butter made by the small farmers, grading it, and preparing it for the wholesale market. In some parts of the south of Ireland notably in County Kerry, where the farms are poor and small and far apart from each other, and where the cow is the mainstay of the family, it answers the purpose of the small farmers to skim their milk and to take the cream to the creamery once or twice weekly retaining the skim-milk for their pig or their calf. Where convenience for butter-making is deficient, and where there is an absence of skill in the farmer, this plan is more satisfactory than that of making butter at home and selling it to the dealer. In some of those districts of England where butter can be sold at a good price and where the skim-milk meets with a ready sale, a butter-factory answers very well; but the successes which have been achieved by some of these factories are no guarantee that the system is adapted to all parts of Great Britain alike, or to any other country. In the Midland counties, more especially in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire, cheese-factories have met with a fair share of success in many instances. Factories of this type would seem to be better adapted for colonial work than either the creamery or the blending-house. I am, however, of opinion that it would be possible in a butter-making district to combine a system under which the butter factory and blending-house might work together. Whether a factory is co-operative or proprietary, it is to the interest of the farmer endeavour, by careful breeding and feeding, to improve his milk both in quality and quantity. In some instances with which I am acquainted it is the practice to pay a higher price for milk which reaches a certain standard of quality; on the other hand, milk which fails to reach a lower standard is either paid for at a reduced price or rejected altogether. It would be to the interest of both factory and farmer to establish two such standards. Those who deliver milk should be required to produce it of such quality that it will yield 3¼ per cent, of fat. Should they, however, reach 3¾ they would be entitled to and should receive an extra price upon every gallon delivered. It is quite possible that a combination of so few as two or three factories would be unable to maintain an analyst who would be required to make daily analyses of every farmer's milk; but there is no reason why a young man should not be trained by a competent chemist to perform analyses of milk, which a person of ordinary intelligence would speedily learn to do, and, under such constant practice, do with rapidity and exactness. If, however, some half-a-dozen factories combined to employ a chemist, or if they were under one management, this work would be easy, for his time might be divided between the factories in such a manner that each farmer's milk would be analysed at least twice weekly. There is, however, one other plan of greater simplicity, although it requires some care and expertness. This is the system of testing milk for butter-fat by the page 27 use of Marchand's lacto-butyrometer. By this plan, 10 cubic centimetres of milk, measured in a pipette, is poured into a long glass tube, a similar quantity of ether is added, and the mixture is throughly shaken and intimately amalgamated. The operator then adds 10 cubic centimetres of alcohol, and again intimately mixes the whole by shaking. The tube is next corked and placed in a bath of water at 104° Fahr., when a fatty solution will gradually rise to the top. The quantity is measured off upon the graduated scale, and reference to a table furnished with the tubes shows the percentage of fat which the sample of milk contained. When carefully worked this system is enough for all practical purposes. In some instances the creamometer is used to test the value of milk, but I have found this test a misleading one, inasmuch as the apparent yield of cream is not always a guide to the quality of milk. In many instances with which I am acquainted milk which has shown a large percentage of cream by the test-tube or creamometer has contained very little butter-fat, and milk which has shown a small percentage of cream has contained a large percentage of butter. Nor is the lactometer or specific-gravity instrument of much value when used alone, for, as is well known, it is possible to abstract cream from, and add water to, milk without altering its density. When used in conjunction with the creamometer, however, this system of fraud can be detected.

In those districts where the temperature does not fall below 55° at any season of the year cheese-making can be conducted with greater success than where there is a positively cold season. This is chiefly to be accounted for by reason of the fact that during cold weather it is necessary to maintain artificial heat not only in the cheese-making rooms, but in the ripening rooms, and I have found in practice that cheese made during a naturally mild temperature, such as we enjoy in England during the cheese-making season, is better than that made under artificial conditions. With regard to butter, however, although it will be admitted that the flavour of that made upon winter food is somewhat inferior to butter made from cows which have been fed upon grass, yet, although it is necessary to make use of artificial heat for churning in cold weather and for separating the milk to the best advantage, winter butter-making can be conducted as successfully as butter-making in summer. It appears, therefore, that in the warmer districts of New Zealand cheese-making might be profitably conducted throughout the entire year, and that in the colder districts the work might be divided between cheese-making and butter-making. Bearing in mind the fact that better work is done in a small than in a large factory, the manager-expert being able to manipulate the curd and practically to make the cheese himself, I believe it would be found to the interest of the dairy-fanners in cheese-making districts to support factories which receive milk from no more than from four hundred to five hundred cows. If from any cause it might be necessary to support a factory page 28 of a larger size I believe it would be found advantageous to divide the milk of such an establishment into two or more lots, each lot being placed under the control of a separate expert For example if the milk of 1,200 cows were supplied to a particular factory I would prefer to employ three expert makers, providing each with the milk of 400 cows. I believe this plan would prove more successful than the somewhat ordinary practice of employing one manager-expert, who could not possibly deal with so large a quantity of milk himself, and whose assistants practically make the cheese. These men, being deficient in skill and knowledge, cannot turn out an article of such high quality as the manager himself would make if the manipulation were entirely in his hands. It is, however, quite possible that it would be more convenient to the farmers if small factories were erected at convenient centres and yet sufficiently near each other to be in touch, so that the manager of each factory might, by constant communication, be enabled to work upon the same lines, and to manufacture as similar an article as possible. In this way they could combine together, not only for the purpose of saving expenses in various directions, but for obtaining analyses of their milk and inspection of the farms from which it is derived. In butter-making districts such a system would be equally advantageous. Farmers at great distances from each other could scarcely be expected to convey their milk daily to a distant factory; but the establishment of small factories in their midst, and yet in proximity to each other, would enable them to send their milk in many instances twice daily There would be an additional advantage. It is probable that a dozen factories under one management would turn out butters which would vary in quality, and which, in fact, could not be consigned to Great Britain as a uniform article. If, however, a blending-machine were erected at the most central of the group of factories the butter from each establishment might be delivered, blended, and prepared for our markets, where its uniform quality would soon be appreciate There would, however, be one other advantage. Were such a system adopted farmers who prefer to make their own butter would have the opportunity of selling it for blending, whether the quanta were large or small; and I conceive that there is no reason why they should not be induced to adopt this plan, more especially where the distances at which they reside from a factory are too great to enable them to send their milk daily. It must not be forgotten however, that in order to achieve good results under such a system the farmer should be required to make his butter upon the system which is adopted at the factory, and to permit his farm, his cattle and his method of feeding to be included under their system of inspection. Although by no means an advocate of the blending system, there are so many in England who are impressed with the successes which have been achieved in the London market by the French blending-houses that I believe it would be to the page 29 advantage of colonial butter-makers to make a serious trial of the system.