Each of the State Agricultural Departments exercises considerable supervision in regard to the industry. Dairy experts are employed to give instruction in approved methods of production, to examine animals, to inspect the buildings used for milking, separating and butter-making, and to examine the marketable produce. A high standard of dairy hygiene, cleanliness of personnel and materiel and purity of produce have also been insisted upon under State laws. Financial assistance has been given to facilitate the economic handling of dairy products, and much benefit has resulted, the advances having generally been promptly repaid.

For the maintenance of the purity and quality of Australian butter and other dairy produce, the Commerce Act passed by the Commonwealth Government requires that each of these articles shall conform to certain standards. Butter intended for shipment oversea must be covered with a true trade description, and that the following information should appear on each box:—The word "Australia," the name of the State in which it was produced, net weight, manufacturer's or exporter's name or registered brand, and the words "pure creamery butter," "pastry butter," "milled butter" (that is, butter which is a mixture or blend of two or more butters ordinarily packed alone and under separate names or brands), or "repacked butter," as the case may require. Other matters may be added, but must be true, and not liable to mislead. Margarine must be so stamped or marked. All butter and other dairy products intended for export must be sent for inspection to appointed places. The inspecting officer issues a certificate on the authorised form that it is up to the standard.

The regulations now in force contain important provisions in regard to the standard for export dairy products. By means of these provisions purity and quality are guaranteed. Trade is also facilitated, since quantities of butter are purchased solely on the certificate issued, without inspection. The standard for butter, the most important dairy article, is as follows:—Butter which contains only—No fat other than butter fat, not more than 16 per cent. of water, 3 per cent. of casein, 0.5 per cent. of boric acid, 4 per cent. of salt, or less than 82 per cent. of butter fat; or any colouring matter deemed by the Minister for Trade and Customs to be harmless.

Subsidiary Industries.

Pig-Raising.—Not least among the rural industries awaiting a far wider development in Australia is that of pig raising. For very many years the number of these animals raised in the different States showed no appreciable increase, though of more recent years improvements in this direction have been noticeable. Yet the rate of progress is quite unequal to the requirements of local demand and of the export business.

Pig raising for years has been a kind of subsidiary industry to dairying, and as such has seldom received the attention warranted by the returns yielded. To some extent it has been the ease with which these profits have been obtained that has brought about the condition of affairs existent to within a few years ago. Pig raising now, instead of being regarded merely as an adjunct to dairying, is being looked upon much in the same light as is a main line whether connected with dairying or general farming. This is indicated by the fact that where previously any description of boar or sow was good enough to produce a litter, now both farmers and dairymen are using chiefly the pedigree stock, and are giving attention to the different crosses most likely to give the largest litters suitable for bacon production, which can be brought into condition for market in the quickest time. The introduction of these businesslike methods has naturally resulted in greater gains, and has further given a stimulus to the pig-raising industry.

The policy of closer settlement which is entering freely into the rural development of the various States is furthermore causing farmers and settlers to give more careful attention to any side industry which can be made to return a good margin of profit on the labour expended. In other words, the modern farmer is becoming more alive to the business possibilities of what may be termed specialised production. It is in this fact that the future development of the pig-raising industry depends. A dairyman, general farmer, irrigationist, and even the fruitgrower finds the pig of inestimable value in using up the waste produce, and turning it into a commodity which will return high interest in a remarkably short space of time.

This turn of events is making itself felt in other directions. Bacon-curing establishments and co-operative factories are coming into existence where formerly supplies would never have justified their presence, and the result is that those who have suitable classes of pigs to dispose of find no difficulty in turning them over at lucrative prices.

This, however, can only be regarded as a commencement in the turn of affairs, for with the increased demand and added facilities of marketing, the sound establishment of the industry is each year becoming more assured.

As an instance of the value of this side line to the settler, the experience of a Victorian irrigated block owner, as related in the columns of the Melbourne "Argus," is worth recording. Writing from Rochester, Vic., the local correspondent reported as follows:—"The pig industry is becoming of great and growing importance on our irrigation holdings, and that settlers are recognising its great value as an adjunct to dairying is proved by the fact that there are now on the settlements four times as many pigs as there were a year ago. A leading auctioneer estimates that, with improved facilities, the sales in Rochester would in the near future amount to 1000 a month. The methods adopted on the irrigation farm of Messrs. Jacob and Kennedy, at Nannulla, show that pig raising is a leading factor in their success. Mr. Jacob demonstrated that $192 per acre a year can be realised from pigs reared almost wholly on lucerne, for half an acre suffices for the sustenance of a brood sow and her progeny of about 20 per annum till they are fit for market. Well-bred animals pay best, especially in the case of the sire, for which a Yorkshire is recommended. Mr. Jacob is prepared to submit his books and returns to those interested, as he did to the writer.... It has to be observed that pig raising does not require either the capital or experience demanded in the case of sheep."

These facts relate in a general way to the industry as it is possible to be carried on in all parts of the Commonwealth. A dairy man or mixed farmer finds that the carrying on of his work at a maximum of profit involves the growth of a number of different crops with which to supplement the rations of his dairy herd. Peas, barley, wheat, maize, pumpkins, carrots, mangolds, lucerne, rape, and other crops are more or less used for a succession. Each one of these is of special value from the pig-raiser's standpoint. Both peas and barley have a high value for fattening purposes, and some of the successful breeders maintain that the addition of wheat contributes largely towards rapid development.