THE MILKING MACHINE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1590, 6 November 1912, Page 10

THE MILKING MACHINE.

MUST BE KEPT CLEAN. "I will never go back to hand milkinjr— iit fact, I would ratlici' go out of the -trade altogether." Such was the remark of a dairy farmer nt tho Minerston Show, when disowning tho merits and demerits of tlio milking machine. The dairyman in question stated that lie had had some fifteen years' csperi«ico of hand milking, but for the past thfoo years_he had been using tho machines. Leaving out of account altogether, the saving of labour, lie considered the machine better than hand milking. Occasionally he found a cow that would hot submit to tho machine—often a good' tow, but he lwd no hesitation in passing her on to a handmilking friend or even rival. The wry best results with tlio macliino were obtained when heifers tvero brought up to it from tlio start, Quo point, howovi;", which could not bo overlooked with the machine u'as tho need for absolute.cleanliness, and this, according to the fiifmer in question, would not lose any farmer any sleep if he chose the right machine. Apropos of the need for cleanliness in milking machines, some recent romarfc of Mr. J. R. Scott, secretary of the South Island Dairy Association, am of interest. Mr. Scott, sriialviug at it. dairy, gathering in the south last week, said lie did not want to rim down the milking machine, but unless .it was kept absolutely clean it provided one of the greatest dangers the dairy industry had to-da.v, The machines could, he added, bo k«pt clean, but in his experience tljey were not in 80 cases out of a. 100..