Dec. 1896.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



307 



Some further information relating to the Finnish butter trade 

 is also given, in his report for 1895, by Mr. Behncke, Her 

 Majesty's Yice-Consul at Lubeck. It seems that the local 

 condition of the Lubeck market for Finnish butter has totally 

 altered. In former years, viz., from 1870 to 1885, large supplies 

 .arrived, amounting to 2,000,000 and 2,500,000 lbs. a year ; but 

 they have since gradually declined, and now, at best, only 

 amount to 600,000 lbs. a year. The cause of this is chiefly to 

 be sought in the fact that Finnish butter has greatly improved 

 in quality. Formerly production in Finland was mostly in the 

 hands of peasants, and these, owing to the small number of 

 cows in the possession of each, could furnish but little butter, so 

 that the collection of large quantities for export took a con- 

 siderable time, the result being that the quality was very 

 inferior. But this state of affairs soon changed. The owners 

 of large estates were aware of the deficiency of their produce, 

 and seeing that great progress had been made in the dairy 

 system abroad, they procured modern and improved appliances. 



The tubs of firwood formerly used for the transport of butter 

 were abolished ; butter-tubs of beechwood, as they are used in 

 Holstein, were procured from Germany. Improved butter of 

 excellen t quality was sent to England and Germany, where 

 it obtained a gold medal at a Hamburg Exhibition in com- 

 petition with German butter. From that period the business 

 took a different course, and a considerable quantity of such 

 superior butter went straight to England, where it found a ready 

 sale. The peasants and other natives of Finland formed 

 associations and procured centrifugal separators in great number, 

 so that production and quality made rapid advances. At 

 present things have gone so far that only one-fourth or one-fifth 

 of the old peasant butter is exported, and is little noticed, 

 whereas the production of superior Finnish butter is progressing. 

 Margarine is almost unknown, imports of that product into 

 Finland being prohibited. 



Dairy Produce in Queensland. 



According to a report which the Board have received from 

 the Government of Queensland, it appears that, owing to the 

 dry weather operating most adversely to dairying, the quantity 

 of butter made in the colony in 1895 declined by 14 per cent, as 

 compared with 189k 



The consumption of butter in Queensland, judging from the 

 experience of the past two years, would appear to be about 10 J lbs. 

 per head. In 1894 the production of butter in the colony was 

 very nearly equal to the home consumption, the excess of 

 imports over exports in that year amounting to little more than 

 200,000 lbs. weight ; the shortage in the supply for 1895 had, 

 however, to be met by an increased import, the excess in that 



