■•••ri T<91 Jftro $nrfe &tate (Eollegp of Agrirultur? At (Harm 11 Imurrattg Jtfjara. N. f . iGtbranj 3-4 r GEORGE V. APPENDIX No. 5 A. 1913 EVIDENCE OF MR. J. A. RUDDICK Dairy and Q. Do you publish reports in detail showing the results of these dairy record centres ? A. Yes. They appear in the annual report of the branch. Q. Of each centre? A. Yes. I think it is worth while doing something to encourage the revival— if I may put it that way— of winter dairying. When it was first advocated twenty years ago, it so happened that the prices for winter butter fell off very much about the same time. But the indications are now that we shall have high prices for winter butter for a good many years to come. It seems to me that there is a better opening for winter dairying than there' has been in the past. We intend to run both dairy sta- tions as winter creameries to encourage the production of milk in winter time. We are giving back to the farmer his pasteurized skimmed milk, and they appreciate that very much. And, as I have said, we sold all the butter we made down at Finch this winter at 31 cents a pound. We are making butter there to-day, and the price of butter at the present time gives the patrons 25 cents per 100 lbs. of milk more than they would get if it was made into cheese according to the cheese market during the past week. That, it seems to me, points to this: That the factory of the future should be equipped to make either butter or cheese, or engage in the cream trade if neces- sary; and that is the coming factory in Ontario. The well equipped factory should be able to turn from butter to cheese at a moment's notice, to make butter one day and cheese the next, and take full advantage of the market variations and of the difference between the price of cheese and the price of butter. TEE PROGRESS OF DAIRYING IN CANADA 129 APPENDIX No. 5 Q. Have you had any complaints or inquiries from some districts as to the diffi- culty experienced by cheesemakers in getting boxes? A. Yes. That is getting to be quite a problem. Q. In our district some of the factories thought they would have to close. By Mr. Morphy: Q. Have you come to any. conclusion as to whether butter or cheese would be the most advantageous line for a farmer in the ordinary pasturage district of Ontario? A. Generally speaking there has not been much difference taking one year with another. If the price of cheese goes up, more milk is diverted into that channel 3nl vice versa so. the law of supply and demand works to keep the profits from cheese mak- ing or butter making at the same level. Q. Which has been the most profitable in the last two years at relative prices ? A. The relative price of cheese has been better than the price of butter, with the exception of during the past winter. Q. Let me put it the other way. In a district capable of producing both, which would you advocate; cheese or butter? A. If they are making cheese, I would advocate that they stick to cheese and develop that branch as fully as possible. If they are making butter, I would advise them to stick to that. Certain localities are noted for one product and other localities the other. Take the Eastern Townships. They have been making butter there for a great many years of a very high quality — I think there is something in the district which permits them to make a high quality, some natural condition which is favour- able. They get rather a higher price for their butter than they wotild for their cheese, relatively. It pays these people to make butter- their main stand. In some parts of Ontario and Quebec, where they have earned a high reputation for making cheese, they would lose that advantage by changing permanently to butter. I am a strong believer in the principle of particular localities sticking to one line of production and developing .that to the highest possible extent. At the same time the factories should be equipped to take advantage of temporary high prices for any product. By Mr. Donnelly: Q. With reference to Mr. Morphy's question, I would like to ask as to the value of the skimmed milk? A. Some farmers place a great deal more value on the skimmed milk than others. It depends somewhat on the kind of stock they raise. It is generally considered to be worth 15 to 20 cents per 100 'pounds, but one cannot lay down any rule in this matter. I can remember in my young days in Oxford county when there were very few calves raised except to keep up the herd. They were knocked on the head as soon as born. Mr. Sutherland. — You would get only five or six cents a pound then, when you get eight cents now for the veal. What about the cream gathering system? The Witness. — There are .many places in Canada where you could not run a creamery successfully on any other system, and you could not run a cheese factory at all where settlement is sparse or the cows widely scattered. The cream gathering system has been abused, but, after all, there is no inherent defect in the system. The quality of the butter has been criticised, but it is because wrong methods have been employed, and the people confuse the methods with the system. Excellent butter can be and is being made on that system in 1 many parts of the country. It is the only practical way to run the creamery business in a great many places. The cream gathering system has been a success in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The same thing is true of the Northwest provinces. They tried the separators, but abandoned that system in favour of the cream gathering system and they have found the latter 130 COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND COLONIZATION 3-4 GEORGE V., A. 1913 a success. Practically all the creameries in Ontario are operated on the cream gathering system. By Mr. Morphy: Q. The establishment of condensed milk factories seems to be increasing in this province. Have you any record of the effect upon the organized cheese factory interest ? A. Take the County of Oxford, for instance. There are two condensed milk factories in that county, and their operations have closed up some of the cheese factories, for the reason that they have paid more money for the milk. Q. Is that likely to continue? A. I think the consumption of condensed milk is likely to increase. Q. Does the price overcome everything in the way of loss of by-products? A. That depends on how the farmer looks at it. Some of the farmers around the big condenser at Ingersoll prefer to send their milk to the cheese factory, and take less money for it. There are certain requirements laid down by the condenseries, in regard to delivering milk, which the producer may object to. Mr. Sutherland knows more about the local conditions than I do. Mr. Sutherland. — Last year on account of the high price of cheese the cheese factories made nearly as much as the condenseries. The Witness. — Yes. But as a rule they pay aJ>out 20 cents a hundred more. By Mr. Edwards: Q. Have you looked into the possibilities of casein in Canada, for manufacturing purposes ? A. Yes. At the present time the casein market is rather low. Q. The reason I asked was the fact that within half a mile of my place there is a cream and casein factory. They pay, at that factory, 5 cents a hundred more than the highest cheese factory in the district. That is how they obtain the supply from the farmers. It seems to me, if they continue to maintain the standing they have readied in the past, there will be great possibilities for that line of business in Ontario ? A. Of course they may be getting their high returns from the sale of cream. The mnnufaeture of casein, however, has been carried on quite extensively in con- nection with the export of cream. In 1911 we exported a million pounds of casein. Q. It has dropped in the last year, I know. A. That was partly because of the decrease in the cream trade. The two things go together very largely. There is a market for casein in the United States, Germany and other parts of the world, but it gives very little more than the value of the -skim milk for feeding purposes at present prices. The question came up recently, in con- nection with the operation of the dairy station at Finch, and we went into the matter pretty fully, and the best offer I -could get was 6 cents a lb. for dry casein. A few years ago it was sold as high as 10 cents. By Mr. Donnelly: Q. You made the statement that the United States is a great producer of dairy products. You referred to the total products and not with reference to population. A. Oh yes. They estimate that they produce about $?00,000,000 worth a year. Q. How does that compare with our population? A. Canada has a larger production per head of population. Pfrhaps the committee would like to know something about the administration of the Cold Storage Act, and the number of contracts that have been entered into for the erection of cold storage warehouses. I have here the names of all these places, the value of the warehouses and the amount of the subsidy paid in each case. Altogether we have twenty-nine contracts, and in most #f these "cases the THE PROGRESS OF DAIRYING IN CANADA , 131 APPENDIX No. 5 warehouses are completed. One is in course of erection and another is about to be started. The largest one is at Prince Eupert, probably one of the finest cold storage warehouses that has ever been built. It is of fireproof construction throughout and it has about a million cubic feet capacity. It is intended to handle an enormous fish business and also general produce. They do not produce anything in that part of the country at all. All food* stuffs have to be brought in and stored. By the Chairman: Q. They are practically all owned by companies? A. Yes, and built with the help of the subsidy. Q. What percentage of subsidy do they get? A. Thirty per cent of the approved cost. The total cost of these warehouses erected to date is $2,151,745, on which the subsidy payable is $596,965. That is the total liability, but the payments are extended over a period of years. I think the members of the committee are all fairly well familiar with our system of cargo inspection. We have men employed at Montreal and other ports, watching the loading and handling of all kinds of perishable prqducts, butter, cheese, apples, meats and things of that kind. They are reported on both at the Canadian port and the port of discharge in the United Kingdom. We get complete reports of all these ship- ments and if any shipper of produce gives us the particulars of any shipments during the past few years, we can tell him, in most cases, at what temperature it was carried ajcross the ocean, what condition it arrived in, and in the case of cheese, what per- centage of the boxes were damaged, &c. We have all that information for the benefit of shippers and others interested. I have in my hand the temperature record of the steamship Tunisian, which sailed from Halifax for Liverpool on June 27. The instrument was placed in No. 2 hatch, with apples, and the temperature ranged from 36 up to 42 throughout the voyage. We take these original records and use them as negatives and make blue prints of them. We can make as many as we like, any ship- per can get one, one goes to the engineer on the steamer, another to the agent of the shipping company and, in the case of a Montreal record, a copy is posted at the Board of Trade in Montreal, so that every exporter who visits the exchange room can see the record of all these steamers. If any steamer shows *a bad record in temperature, say for carrying cheese, that steamer would not get very much cheese in future. That is the way we bring pressure to bear on steamship companies to make them keep their services up to the mark, and I can assure the committee, from my knowledge of the handling of Canadian produce, that there has been a great improvement since the service was begun. , We^do not even have the force of the law behind us. The work is done very quietly ; our inspectors are admitted to the docks and ships on sufferance, and could be ordered oft if the companies wished. As a matter of fact, the transpor- tation companies are in hearty sympathy with our efforts. If our inspectors watching the loading of the steamers report a dock labourer for rough handling and if he does not improve his ways after one warning, he is very likely to be discharged. They are often discharged on the reports of our inspectors. We had rather a serious occurrence in connection with the work at Halifax recently. A man who had been discharged after being reported by the inspector, threw a rock which broke the jaw of the inspec- tor in two places. He was arrested and was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. He was later released on suspended sentence. There are a number of other lines of work I would like to have spoken on, but I will not detain you any further. The Chairman. — I am sure we have all enjoyed Mr. Euddick's address. He has given us a lot of very valuable information, and the committee are indebted to Mr. Euddick for his kindness in coming before them. Witness retired. Committee adjourned. Cornell University Library SF 233.R91 Evidence of Mr. J. A. Ruddick, dairy and 3 1924 003 064 247