45

I.—6a

I prefer the separator system myself, but I do not think we have sufficient information from Home to warrant us in saying separator butter commands a better price there ; in the colony it averages about 2d. a pound higher than that made on the ordinary pan system. One of the great points in butter-making is to allow your cream to ripen properly, and to be careful not to overchurn. Dairymen here, as a rule, leave too much water after working up ; they should pack drier. Feeding your cattle is another point that requires great attention, especially in winter; during that time nothing makes better butter than green oats, mixed, of course, occasionally with hay or straw as a corrective. This mode of] feeding causes the butter to have a fine rich colour, doing away with chemicals, so often used for this end. Turnips spoil the butter, but the use of saltpetre counteracts the effect to a certain extent. I should never feed on turnips unless forced to do so. Mangels will increase the flow of milk, but make the yield of butter poor. I certainly think dairying in New Zealand under good management is a most profitable employment. lam at present getting some £50 or £60 a month from one customer. It will not do for those without experience to go in for it. I think that it would be better to educate small farmers into taking their milk to the factories than to teach them butter-making. Butter-making will be a very large industry in Taranaki if properly fostered. Owners of small herds can never compete with large owners, as it is necessary to have cows fresh, and always coming into milk; and because, also, the excessive railway charges on small quantities prevent them sending butter to market so as to make a profit. Small farmers, as a rule, churn in too small quantities to fill a keg, and between the churnings the butter deteriorates to such an extent as to ruin it for export. Ido not exactly know how long salt butter will keep. I have kept some over six months, and it has been good. I use ordinary fine salt, and work it well in. More depends on this than having the salt of finest quality. I do not think there is danger of factories finding their supply of milk run short when butter is fetching a high price in market, as they make annual agreements which meet the difficulty. Factories pay from to 3Jd. per gallon for milk, according to season of year. I think that a specially-constructed cool receiving-chamber in Wellington will be a very good thing. Night-trains should run with vans specially built to bring in the butter. This would prevent damage during transit. To show what difference "training" or quick transit makes, I may mention what Mr. Cock, a butter-buyer of our district, told me of a shipment he sent Home. There should have been a hundred kegs sent down together, but for some reason only fifty came by Union Company's steamer, the others being delayed and afterwards sent on by train. Both quantities were shipped by the same Home-steamer, and were of exactly the same make and quality when bought; but in London that which came by train fetched £2 a hundredweight more than the other lot. The best time for shipping butter to London is from September to Christmas. With regard to cheese-making, much depends on the relative prices as to whether it or buttermaking is the most profitable. It takes about a gallon of milk to make a pound of cheese as against 2-| gallons to the pound of butter; but, taking into consideration the value of the skimmilk, and also the extra labour and care entailed in cheese-making, I am inclined towards butter as being the best-paying industry.

APPENDIX. Daiey Industey in Ameeica. The system of aid to the dairying industries in Canada and the United States is, briefly, as follows:— Associations of not less than, say, a hundred members are formed in the various agricultural centres, which, having complied with the provisions of the Act under which they are constituted, receive monetary assistance from the Government of their States. Attached is a cOpy of the constitution and rules of one of these associations, from which it will be seen that the object aimed at is the furtherance of all matters appertaining to the industry. General meetings are held annually to receive reports and other matters of business, and during the session, which lasts some days, the various members and experts read papers or give lectures. After these are delivered discussions take place on the various points raised, members being invited and encouraged to ask any questions and give their views on any matters likely to interest the association generally. Verbatim reports of the meetings are taken, and as soon as possible after the session, full notes are printed and widely distributed in pamphlet form, gratis. Judging from these reports, many of the members take full advantage of the privileges offered, to make themselves perfect in their business, going to the meetings with long lists of questions arising out of the experiences of the past year, all of which are answered or fully discussed, no matter how trifling they may appear. The associations appoint instructors, who visit various dairies, helping and advising the dairymen. Their mode of imparting instruction is to choose a suitable dairy, situated within easy distance of a number of others, and, after obtaining permission from the owner, to invite all the neighbourhood to attend, and then go through the process of butter- or cheese-making, explaining the reason of every action, and answering questions on all points. At the end of each year, full reports of these visits are made to the board of directors, who have them printed with their annual pamphlet. The instructors also attend the annual conventions, and answ 7 er any questions arising out of their reports. In the United States a State agricultural society, board, or commission is the generally accepted form of administering State aid. Each State has an agricultural college endowed by the