414 Journal of Agriculture. [10 July, 1909. 



in the milk we get good results by straining it, and this leaves no white 

 specks in the butter. 



Mr. Wilson (Leongatha). — Has it been a success on the Melbourne 

 market as against unpasteurized? 



Mr. Watson. — Most emphaticalK , \e.s. In our case we have a good 

 many different clas.ses of cream to deal with, from totally different classes 

 of country, volcanic, (S:c., and some of this cream if unpasteurized would 

 turn out very inferior butter. 



Mr. Proud (Korumburra). — If you get into a tight spot in the market 

 better prices are received for pasteurized Imtter. 



Mr. McKay. — Ho\v often on average do you get your cream supplies? 



Mr. Proud. — The bulk daily. Put rich cream three or four days old 

 would frequently give a better result. 



Mr. Laffan (Hutler Grader). — I carrird out exi>eriments at Tatura 

 recently. On my return I made inquiries and found that there was an 

 increase of id. per lb. in one instance and lid. in the other on the Tatura 

 butter. At this time of the year there is not a great deal of butter for- 

 w-arded b) that factory to the city. The cream varfed from three to four 

 days old and was Ijadlv tainted with lucerne. Some of the cream four 

 days old was in a much better condition than some of the two days old 

 cream. In some instances, after getting ricl of the lucerne taint, I dis- 

 covered something worse which the lucerne had hidden. 



Mr. Wilson. — Is it necessary to use a starter? 



Mr. Watson. — We always use a starter. I can quite imagine that 

 there are instances to the contrary. The use of the starter gives uniformity. 

 One of the chief objects in pasteurizing is to get uniformity. 



THE FUTURE OF DAIRY FARMING IN VICTORIA.* 



T. Cherry, M.D., M.S., Director of Agriculture. 

 The non- progressive character of the dairying industry in recent years 

 may be .seen by a glance at the accompanying graphic representation of 

 Victorian exports of butter since the inception of the trade. The relative 

 number of tons each year is indicated by the depth of the black column 

 corresponding to the date. It will be seen that from a mode.st 365 tons 

 in 1889/90, the exports rapidly rose to 11,600 tons in 1894/5. During 

 the following four years, production remained nearly stationary at a slightly 

 low^er level. The second great expansion took place in 1899/ 1900, when 

 over 17,000 tons were exported. The axerage production for each of the 

 succeeding nine vears up-to-date has been much below this amount, although 

 on two occasions, 1905/6 and 1906/7, it has been slightly exceeded. 

 There can be no doubt whatever, therefore, that the industry is not only 

 stationary hut is actually retrograding. At the same time, the number of 

 agricultural holdings in Victoria has risen from 49,000 in 1904 to 57,800 

 in 1908, and as dairy farming is a form of industry (particularly well 

 suited for families taking up new holdings and making a start in agricul- 

 ture, one would naturally expect that it would l)e marked bv steady ex- 

 pansion. Several cau.ses may, however, be found for the reverse state of 

 affairs. Dairying is often looked upon as a stepping-stone to some lighter 

 form of occupation which involves less continuous labour, such as stock 

 fattening or wheat grG\ving. As soon as a family finds itself in a position 

 from the profits made from the cows to go into a less laborious although 



* Address delivered before the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Australasi.in 

 Butter and ("heese Factories Managers' Association lield Mav, iqoo, at Melbourne. 



