99 



Mr. E. B. Young, of our Wine and Produce Depot, telegraphed on 

 April 22nd, 1895, recommending the pasteurising (t. e. sterilising) pro- 

 cess and the use of selected yeasts (meaning pure cultures of bacteria), 

 to counteract the "fishy" flavour of Australian butter. I had long held 

 the same opinion, and had again written to the Bacteriological Station 

 at Kiel, Holstein, for such pure cultures, as some of these had been 

 succesfully introduced into New Zealand, although apparently neglected 

 or lost through the want of refrigerators. 



Notwithstanding the most scrupulous cleanliness in milking-sheds or 

 stockyards, and in the vessels used, it is not possible to avoid disagree- 

 ble flavour or to retain the aroma unless the milk or cream is sterilised 

 and inoculated as soon as separated, with the particular bacterium in suffi- 

 cient quantity, which will give the desired aroma and prevent the ac- 

 tion of all organisms producing bad flavours. These latter float in the 

 air —especially the butyric acid bacillus, which causes rancidity — and are 

 not present in the milk as drawn from the cow. We too often forget the 

 discovery made by M. Pasteur in 1860, that the process of fermenta- 

 tion is due to the presence of living organisms, or bacteria ; and the 

 buttermaker should imitate the practice of the brewer, who, instead of 

 leaving the fermentation of his beer to chance and uncertainty, carefully 

 cultivates a yeast containing only those bacteria which will give his 

 beer the taste and aroma desired, and thus he secures a complete mas- 

 tery over the fermentation. 



The report is valuable, not only as evidencing how the Danes have 

 adopted the teachings of science in their practice, but also as showing 

 how much of their success is due to the wise aid given by the Danish 

 Government to private enterprise. The increasing demand for Danish 

 butter in England was, and is, largely due to the services of a civil ser- 

 vant, an accomplished scientist (Mr. M. Faber), whose duties were to 

 aid by all means the sale in England, and to meet and correct through 

 the press all false and damaging statements concerning Danish agricul- 

 ture, and particularly the dairy industry. He had also to direct atten- 

 tion to frauds and adulterations with oleo-margarine and the like. 



Professor (ieorgeson remained in Denmark from January 27th till 

 March 6th, 1893 The population is about 2,000,000 ; contains 14,553 

 square miles; has a mean temperature of 43*7° Fah. to 47 '3° Fah., and 

 about 24in. of rain — never a complete failure of crops on account of 

 drought. Large farms seldom contain more than 500 to 1,500 acres, 

 of which class there are 1,954. Of medium farms, containing from 50 

 to 500 acres, there are 71,773 ; and smaller farms number 150,260. 

 The average size of farms is about 30J acres, if we exclude forests and 

 waste lands, and take only what is under cultivation and in grass. 

 These statistics are some years old, and the sub-division of the large es- 

 tates isbein^ carried on. Farmers now own more than 50 per cent of 

 the area under cultivation, and the greater portion of the remaining 

 land is worked by peasants under a life tenancy, which can be held by 

 the widow so long as she does not remarry. They are thus sure of any 

 improvements made by themselves, and the condition of agriculturists 

 is prosperous — more especially in comparison with the period before the 

 astonishing output of dairy products. In 1891 the total quantity of but- 

 ter made was calculated to have been 170,074,642 lbs., of which 

 100,600,788 lbs. were exported ; and this from a sinatt country, which 



