June 1896.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



61 



this it appears that the prices for fine cheese during the same 

 periods were 68s. 5d., 69s., 58s. 2d., and 60s. lOd. respectively. 



Mr. Murray goes on to say that the keenest advocates of the 

 factory system admit that under peculiarly favourable circum- 

 stances, in isolated cases, better cheese may be made in the farm- 

 house than is possible in a factory, but the factory pulls up the 

 average of a district. The farmer who can make a really fine 

 cheese will no doubt realise more money by making his cheese 

 at home. The difficulties which beset this course are, however, 

 numerous, and there is no certainty of uniformity from year to 

 year. 



Mr. Murray despairs of home dairying ever being able to 

 successfully compete with butter factories or creameries. He 

 says : " A creamery on a large scale can be started and run with 

 a small capital, providing the tenants will take an active interest 

 in the venture. We cannot disguise the fact that no creamery, 

 whether worked on co-operative or on proprietory lines, will 

 succeed unless the by-products, the separated milk and the 

 butter-milk, can be utilised to the best advantage. No one can 

 do this more profitably than the farmers themselves. The 

 stock of the country is, so to speak, under the normal standard 

 of population, and considering the earlier age at which they are 

 now made fit for the butcher, the number cannot rapidly 

 increase." 



He strongly advocates the establishment of creameries in 

 different districts close to a railway station, where the farmer 

 can either deliver his new milk twice a day, at the same time 

 taking back his proportion of the separated milk and butter- 

 milk, or, what is better still, set up a separator on the farm and 

 send the cream to the factory. By adopting this course the 

 farmer has the best of all foods, fresh separated milk, on the 

 spot either for the use of his family and servants and the 

 rearing of young stock, or the production of pork. The cream 

 when it arrived at the factory would be ripened and churned ; 

 the butter would be more or less sorted in accordance with the 

 tastes of the different markets, and despatched to the wholesale 

 or retail dealers daily. Butter made in this way would, in Mr. 

 Murray's opinion, be superior to that of any other country, and 

 would readily find a market at the top prices of the day. 



Inspection of Animals and Meat in Queensland. 



The Act entitled " Live Stock and Meat Export Act of 1895," 

 passed by the Queensland Legislature in December, and taking 

 effect from the 1st January last, provides for the inspection of 

 live stock and meat intended for export from the Colony. 

 According to this Act, no live stock or meat may be exported 

 without a certificate from a Government inspector that it is 

 sound and free from disease ; in the case of meat, moreover, the 



