204. TEB AGRICULTUBAL JOURNAL. 



three dry seasons, it is quite probable 

 that there may now be a run of good 

 seasons. If so, the annual production of 

 milk will he enormous. Additional land 

 is being devoted to dairying every year, 

 and new factories and creameries are 

 being erected to deal with the increased 

 supply of milk that will certainly be 

 available. 



A warning is necessary at the present 

 juncture, and it is considered essential to 

 point out to milk-growers not only the 

 rock that looms in the distance, but also 

 the means whereby that rock may be 

 avoided. 



The probable export season for butter 

 terminates about the end of April in each 

 year. Butter exported in May would 

 arrive in England right in the middle of 

 their flush season for milk, and the prices 

 obtainable at that time of the year for 

 best Victorian factory butter would not 

 be sufficiently high to enable our factories 

 to pay more than, say, 2d. per gallon for 

 milk, perhaps not so much 



Given, then, that we have a moist 

 spring, and a favourable summer, the 

 supply of milk during February, March, 

 April, and May will produce more butter 

 several times over than will be required 

 for Australian consumption. This will 

 mean that prices here will probably fall 

 below Gd. per ft. for prime quality. All 

 below prime quality will have to be sold 

 at an unprofitable figure. Prices for 

 milk will be so low that dairy farmers 

 might become disgusted with their oc- 

 cupation, and suddenly abandon dairy- 

 ing, and sway round to some other oc- 

 cupation that just at the time might be 

 offering l)etter prospects. Such a state 

 of all'aii-s would l)c calamitous both to 

 the individual and to this country gener- 

 ally ; but how is it to be avoided ? 

 Simply by combining cheese-making 

 with I)utter-making at all our leading 

 factories. This is the only way out of 

 the difficulty, and if neglected the result 

 will be serious for the dairying industry. 



In England there is, as a rule, a fairly 

 good market for good Cheddar cheese 

 during the months of February, March, 

 April, and May. The price, of course, 

 will not leave as good a margin of profit 



as we have been getting for butter during 

 the past three seasons, but the price 

 which good cheese will realise, if shipped 

 at the right time, will pay dairy farmers 

 very much better than glutting the Mel- 

 bourne and English markets with butter 

 during the summer and autumn. It is, 

 tlierefore, advisable for factories to be m 

 a position to convert milk either mto 

 butter or cheese as the requirements of 

 the world's markets may demand. By 

 thus being able to manufacture cheese 

 when butter is low, and vice versa, gluts 

 will, as far as possible, be minimized, and 

 sudden fluctuations in the value of milk 

 avoided. 



Having so strongly recommended 

 cheese-making during the summer 

 months as the best possible means of 

 avoiding a glutted butter market in the 

 autumn, milk-growers will naturally ex- 

 pect some plain practical instruction re- 

 garding the latest and most approved 

 methods of making cheese by this 

 Canadian-Cheddar system. 



PuBE Clean Milk necbssaky. 

 Before a factory makes arrangements 

 to commence cheese-making there should 

 be some guarantee that none bat the very 

 purest and cleanest milk shall be sup- 

 plied. Purity and cleanliness in milk is 

 far more necessary for cheese-making 

 than for butter-making, although for 

 both it should always be clean and pure. 

 Begin by prevailing upon the milk sup- 

 pliers to have clean cowsheds, to clean 

 the cows' udders before milking, and to 

 always keep their hands clean. A beginn- 

 ing must be made at the fountain head, 

 because unless the strictest cleanliness be 

 observed at every stage, from the time the 

 milk is drawn from the cow until it is 

 delivered to the cheese-maker, it is im- 

 possible for a good quality of cheese to 

 bo manufactured. There is altogether 

 loo much indifference amongst our milk- 

 producers regarding this question of 

 (;leanliness. If anything like a correct 

 estimate could be obtained of the depreci- 

 ation in the value of our butter during 

 one year owing to impurities in the milk 

 and the want of cleanliness in handlin.f 

 it, the figures would have a startling 

 effect on the community. Seeing that 



