428 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Junz, 1899. 
The system of each farmer having a separator is absurd in thickly popu- 
lated districts, contrary to all reason, and increases the cost of manufacture 
very considerably. . 
The reason farmers are procuring hand-separators may be attributed to the 
fact that they are dissatisfied with the Babcock milk-test results of the pro- 
rietary factories, a matter that might readily be overcome by a number of 
farmers procuring a Babcock tester and doing their own testing; this would 
only entail an outlay of about £3 to £4. 
Again, we have a paragraph written in the course of February, 1898, by a 
correspondent who considers evidently that the quality of then recent ship- 
ments of butter was not what it should be. 
Mr. Mahon, writing on 23rd February, 1898, on the subject of this paragraph, 
says :— 
In reference to a paragraph that appeared in the Brisbane Courier of 
Tuesday, 22nd February, under the heading of “ Our Dairying Industry,” I wish - 
to inform you that there is no authentic information to warrant such a state- 
ment being published, ety as regards the quality of recent shipments of 
butter, and prices obtained in the London market. It is a well-known fact that 
all butter is "sold privately in London, and making known the actual prices 
realised, would be contrary to the interests of traders at this end, as also the 
traders'in Loudon. . 
I am‘in-a‘position to be able to state that all butter shipped this season 
(bearing the Government brand) was equal in quality to that shipped by the 
“ Jumna” last year, and even some brands I found to be very much improved. 
Some manufacturers are turning out a good article, but in many cases not 
of an even grade, which may be attributed to the cream being ripened in the 
ordinary 10-gallon milk cans. Under such methods it is impossible to turn out a 
uniform quality of butter; and the sooner proper cream vats are substituted for 
this system, the better for those concerned. 
The system of having small cream separators scattered all over the various 
dairying centres, and each farmer doing his own cream separating, is certainly 
wrong, and cannot bring about good results. The expense in the way of labour, 
such as separating, cream carting, &e., apart from the cost of the separator, is 
much greater than the central creamery system, all of which has a tendency to 
increase the cost of manufacturing. 
However, during my travels, I have gathered information from many 
farmers who assure me that their reason for securing their own separators and 
separating their own milk is due to the unsatisfactory results they have obtained 
from the Babcock milk-tester at various creameries. 
Although not approving of the above system myself, I may mention that, 
on my visiting the Murwillumbah butter factory yesterday, the manager (Mr. 
Mellwraith) informed me that at the present time there are sixty farmers (includ- 
ing some in Queensland) supplying him with cream from their own separators, 
and only two supplying milk. 
EXPORT OF BUTTER FROM AUSTRALASIA. 
sees 
Ti amount of butter sent from these colonies to the United Kingdom in the 
month of December, 1898, was 44,600 ewt., and the first fortnight in January, 
1899, showed an export to Great Britain of over 46,000 ewt., or about 
one-seventh of the total monthly requirements of the United Kingdom, the 
annual imports amounting in 1898 to 3,204,093 cwt. If good prices are to be 
maintained for our produce sent to England, the exports should be more evenly 
distributed over the year. The quantity of butter exported thither during the 
first fortnight of January more than equalled that arriving from Denmark 
during the same period. This can but have the effect of depressing the market, 
and therefore producers would do well to study how to maintain a steady export 
