THE DAWN OF DAIRYING CO-OPERATION. 



The next development in connection with the dairying industry was 

 that of mechanical refrigeration . The first to move in this direction 

 was Mr. T. S. Mort, who had become largely interested in dairying 

 owing to his connection with a Mr. Hawdon, who at one time owned 

 the Bodalla Estate, 1835-56. In the year 1872 Mr. Mort imported 

 cattle from the United Kingdom and other dairying countries, in- 

 cluding Shorthorns, Ayrshires, Friesians, and Jerseys, which he kept 

 in separate herds. He erected a large cheese factory on the estate, 

 and also an up-to-date bacon factory, and continued to increase the 

 numbers of his cattle until about the mid eighties, when there were 

 about 1200 milkers on the Bodalla Estate, which, together with other 

 improvements, cost 40,000. Mr. Mort did not content himself with 

 being the owner of probably the largest dairying estate in Aus- 

 tralia. He commenced experimenting with freezing machinery His 

 experiments with chilling of milk is one of the most interesting in 

 the history of the development of dairying. Those who are at all 

 acquainted with the action of extreme cold onl milk need not be told 

 that it separates the cream from the milk. The experiments which 

 Mr. Mort tried before discovering a simple agitator to counteract 

 this trouble and thus blend all the milk from top to bottom of the 

 milk vats cost thousands of pounds. Then we have the frozen meat 

 and mutton trade, with its gigantic difficulties to be overcome. 



In 1886 the Omega (Kiama) Concentrated Milk Company had 

 closed down, and its machinery had been idle for some time, the 

 New South Wales Fresh Food and Ice Company came to the assist- 

 ance of those most interested, and installed two Danish separators 

 of a capacity of 120 gallons per hour each, and commenced butter 

 making. 



The following year, 1887, saw two butter companies established in 

 Jamberoo, with each a capital of 2000 which amounts were sub- 

 scribed and paid to the credit of each company, named the Wanghope 

 and Woodstock respectively, by the business men and dairymen 'oi 

 that small locality within the short space of six weeks. Three montns 

 later the buildings were erected and installed with a separating plant, 

 including four each 6o-gallon hollow bowl De Laval separators, churns, 

 butterworker, &c. These two factories proved, with all their short- 

 comings, the possibilities of the butter factory system throughout 

 Australia. 



In 1888 the -factory system had taken hold of the great bulk of the 

 dairying population of New South Wales, with the result that factories 

 seemed to spring up like mushrooms. The larger dairymen went in 

 for what was termed private steam power separating plants on the 

 De Laval principle, and converting the cream into butter as usual. 

 This was the forerunner of the creamery system which has since ob- 

 tained. 



Those men who in the past laid the foundations of our dairy herds 

 in Illawarra and elsewhere in New South Wales, together with those 

 who perfected the butter factory system,. and later on those who gave 

 us the dairy refrigerator deserve to have their .names emblazoned on 

 the scroll of fame, as uithout these three where would the dairying 

 industry be to-day on the Northern Rivers of New South Wales or 

 Southern Queensland. Without the old Illawarra dairy cow, the De 

 Laval separator, and an up-to-date refrigerating plant, dairying could 

 not possibly have survived the great advancements in dairying which 

 had previously been made in France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, 

 Denmark, and other countries such as America and Canada. 



F Si. 



