THE MILKING MACHINE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1709, 28 March 1913, Page 8

THE MILKING MACHINE.

INTERESTING AMERICAN. POINTS'. Is tlio milking machine a practical de'ice? Has it sol red the problem ol labour on. tho dairy farm?' The ansivor returned by tho New York experiment station to tho above queries ia "\es" in each instance. In an American paper, Jlr. G. A. Smith and Dr. H. A. Harding, of tho Now York experiment station, report their investigations covering ix period,of five years. On tho germ content of tho milk they say: "Bulletin 317 of this station discussed tho effect of methods of handling milking machines upon tho germ content of tho liiilk. Tho results of. this study may bo summarised as follows:—

"1. The immersion of the teat cups and the-rubber parts of the machine in a 10 per cent."solution of salt (NaCl) between milkingsns important'. When jlaily washing and scalding of theso parts was contrasted with washing them once a week' and keeping them in a salt solution during the remainder of the time, this latter treatment reduced tho average germ content of the milk-from over 180,000 germs per cc., to less than 20,000 per cc. "2.,/rhe, airvfilters are also important 'in .proportion as they remove the germladen,dust from the air which enters tho pail during,;;tlie: milking process. On tho •later-types J of machines used these filters \rere r ,large'enough to be quite efficient anil tho genu content of the milk, when the tubes'had been held in brine and the filter cups had beei properly filled with cotton, was almost always markedly below 10,000' cc. " /Dropping the teat' cups on the floor during the milki lg process or any gross .carelessness in handling tho machino caused a surprising rise in the germ con-, .tent of the milk. -.Occasionally very high .counts were obtained where no definite cause could be found. "■l. -The point which is 'emphasised by theso; studies is that the, quality of milk obtained from a milking machino depends primarily upon the intelligent care which is exercised-in the manipulation of the machine. "While immersion in a solution of common salt-supplemented'by a careful hand washing of the teat cups and rubber tubes ; once per week was found to bo both cheaper and more efficient than daily hand washing, the question of what is the best solution for protecting tho rubber 'parts is still unsettled. Tho problem is still being studied." ■ As to the amoiiat of time consumed as compared with hand milking, their studies are! summed up in the following statement:— { ■ ■]■■•■■■ ' "Combining' the averages on the basis of a fifteen-cow dairy and assuming that these cows were milked by one man using two milking machines, the computation jwould.bo as follotvs:— ' v ' " Minutes. Preparing,..the., machines night and , !)■.•• morning; y '6.72 •Milking 30.cows (15 night and morn- " ! ingj 88.20 ■Rinsing machines at barn night and • morning 15.3G Cleaning teat cups and tubes (1-7 ' ■ of 18.3) 2.01 Washing remaining parts of machines ." 8.13 Total time'Tequired for milking • . 30 -conrs'' 121.02 ' ! !• Average time required to - milk

one cow ....; 4.0.H "The average time of hand milking, 7 minutes. • "Tho influence of the operator is. summed up iii "tlie"follov.'ins statement:— ' "The success of tho milking, machine, like' any' other-machine; is closely asso.the'jpersonality of .'the operator:; During this experiment the machines, „haye been operated by six different men, 'all "of whom have done at least fairly wcjl. In this study, the attempt has been made to <:ontrost the machine and hand nethods of milking at their best. Unquestionably it takes a higher grade man. to operate a milking machine successfully than to :haud-milk a cow equally well. , Tho're is overy;reason to think that in the • hands o.f careless operators the machines will- work injury' to the cows, but the sanie result is.too often obtained from Inefficient hand milking." The.dnost. important point of this study coyered^he;.influence of the machine, on the-flow of. milk. Of this the authors say: :"This',study ',pf the influence of hand end. machine -Methods upon the flow of milk covers-a fpcriod of over, four years and inehfdes 71 lactation periods after, eliminating the questionable data. The influence of the machine method of milking_upqn; the-flow of milk was too small to be measured even when the other factors wene eliminated as fully as possible. It was probably responsible for less than l.p.er cent, of the.variation in flow under the. conditions of tins experiment. All of tho cows milked well with the machine J 5 ;® 1 } they "'ere. provided with properly htted teat cups. Two cows which wera failures with hand milking were successfully milked by lhe machine."