WHERE MILK COMES FROM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 57, 12 July 1913, Page 7

WHERE MILK COMES FROM.

DAY IN A QAiEY.

WONDERFI'L MACHINKS

'raciical Demonstration to Dairymen

(From "Sydney Sun.")

A number of men interested in dairying visited "Tares Oaks" dairy, Follj Point, Middle Harbor, Sydney, one morning recently; to examine the "A.W.R." milking machine plant. Mr W. H. Jones, the proprietor, show ?x\ the visitors over his solendidly ap pointed dairy, and described how he had been the' first dairyman in New South Wales to install the new systea of milking. To a person who know: nothing about the milking of man;. cows, the first sight of the inetallatio. 1 must cause a severe shock. It is s< unlike the ideas one has had of tin milking of cows as to be almost un canny. Instead of getting the impression that the cows are being milked, one is rather apt to think that some peculiar operation is being per mined on the cows—in fact, that the; ire a lot of suffragette cows and ar 'icing forcibly fed.

OLD STYLE MILKING

Everyone has seen a picture of i iniiity dairymaid carrying a tiny stoo md bucket going off through a gree) .neadow to milk the cows. One see; ler, in imagination, bailing up tin rows and drawing the milk from tin .oats into the tiny bucket, and thei «. alking back home with it on hei inn. It is a charming picture, bin .t is nothing like what one sees ii : modern dairy. Instead of a prett, lairymaid one sees quick-footed me: flurrying about with long rubber tube: :ver their arms, and their hands fui if peculiar metal cylinders. Even ivhere the cows are munching' thei ;'eed, and the air is sweet with thiineli of lucerne and oilcake; bu .here is no sign of milking stool, tnd bucket, or any receptacle in whic idlk might bo collected. Yet on knows that milking is going on ai the time. The puzzle is: "How is i doner" Machine milking of Cows hs oesn in existence for a long time. J is a system which has been adopte oy (very up-to-date dairyman. Lik the motor-car and other modern mac bines, however, it was not nearly per feet in its form. Improvments am inventions were introduced every year and thre is to-day almost as mucl difference between a modern system c there is between the first tjpe am thre is between the first type an land-milking.

THE MODERN "A.W.R."

Th-3 "A.W.R." machine, installs by Mr Jones at the "Three Oaks' dairy, is the latest model of mecham cal milker. It is the invention of M A. W. lieid, of Stratford, New Zealand. Experience with ail the weL iciiov, n machines showed that gentle man Ithe possibilities of the mechanic;: milker,and laso the points in'which the existing machine fell short of perfet tion. He accordingly applied iiinise) to the inventing of a neiv milker tiia "wa-s £o be as hear perfection as etmk be made. Accordingly he produced th l /'A.W.R." milking machine, to .com. bine efficiency with sjnapiicity, and constructed that the farmer with ni previous* of madhihyH could handle it wrfchbut any difficulty. Like other systems, the "A.W.R.' may be used with bucket attachment* —tnat is, the milk may be dr.awn fron the cow and discharged into a closet bucket near by—but the novel featun of Mr Jones's installation is that tft< milk,; u'hen drawn from the cow, in ;i'tehd of going- into.a bucket, passer upwards tiii'ough solid drawn niifcetler pipes, along the top of the bails, on of th. 9 sited, across a space, and.iut; a dairy,' where it 43 discharged ; ntc a strainer, and then passes into a vat from which it is served \h the deliver; carts. It does not once reach the aii till discharged from the "releaser in the dairy. So matter how filthy th. milking sheds might be—Mr Jones' shed was a model of cleanliness—th milk could not be contaminated froi the time it left the cow to passin* into the receiving vat. THE rXGENIOUS TEAT CUP.

The milk is drawn from the cow's udder* by a special teat cup, which i; regarded as one—if not the principal—feature of the "A.W.R." machine. Ii is of the utmost simplicity of design, and can be easily taken to pieces foi cleaning. It allows free circulatioi of air, consequently complete circulation of blood «round the teats, ant gently, but quickly and efficiently, milks the cow, leaving the teatsl smooth and free from congestion .or swelling The inner rubber tube presents a perfectly smooth surface to the teat, but it is «o constructed that it collapses at the top first, gradually working to the base in complete imitation of the calf In sucking. The metal part sof the cup are of seamless aluminium, and there is no obstacle nor corner in which dirt cat collect. Attached to the cups are lonp rubber tubes connecting with two overhead pipes. One is the pulsator pip< that controls the squeeze of the in flation in the teat cup. The othci pipe is the main vacuum, and take; milk from the cow to the releaser After the teat-cup, the "pulsator" is of first interest. It is an ingenious mechanical device, controlling the ah force, and produces an effect similar to the sucking force of a calf's mouth. lit gives a long pull, followed by 8 quick release. By adjustment it cai be made to give any length of pul required, thus making it possible v milk the hardest cow. THE "RELEASER,"

After travelling along the overheat pipes the milk is collected in a "re leaser" in the dairy. This consist! of two nickel cylinders which work alternately by automatic adjustment. One cylinder is receiving while the other cylinder is discharging. The milk rising, raises a float which opeiuthe stopper, at the same time closing the stopper of the other cylinder. The milk in the first cylinder the runs out while the second cylinder v., filling. Mr Jones showed how the pipe;; were cleaned immediately after the cows had heeh milked. This was an intensely interesting process, as it proved the virtue of the system. N< matter how ingenious a milking machine may be, it will he worse than useless if it cannot he properly and quickly cleaned'. After the cows have been driven out of the bail, Mr JVmes

explained, the overhead pipes are con- ' noAid with a stand-pipe from the 'ci:y water supply. Cold water is then ', running throng! l , the whole length of ,'tue rystem, effectively flushing it. ! Then steam from a boiler is sent through the pipes, to lie followed by iiot water containing an antiseptic. Tner there is another charge of ster.rn ! sent through, followed by mere cold ; watt-'. The taps where the milk

passes from the rubber tidies (con-i nected with the teat cups) into the | pipes are flushed with water and steam, the same as the pipes, ami are also scrubbed out with a small hrush. | SAYING HAND WORK.

Mr Jones saij he milked 100 cows twice a day. Each process took about | two hours!! He had been using the I "A.W.R." machines for three months, . and reckoned they were worth £lO j a week extra to him, beside making the work lighter. He had carried oiu ; tests for a month with hand milking I and machine milking, and had employ- ■ ed two of the best milkers in the State | for the purpose. At the end of thej month he found that the machines i gave a slightly larger quantity than j the hand-milking, but there was a distinst increase in the butter fat. When he installed the "A.W.R." at "Three Oaks" there was a sharp drop in the quantity of milk obtained from the cows in the first two days, bub j after a week he was.obtaining about! five gallons or more a day. The great advantage in the milking machine, in | Mr Jones's opinion, was its cleanliness as compared with hand milking; its effectiveness, and the great saving in labor. "When I had hand milking," said Mr Jones, "it meant getting up at 1 o'clock in the morning. Then all hands had to milk, and after that i the men who had been milking would get on the carts and deliver it. Now the men who deliver don't have to milk, and so they start away fresh, i'hey get through their work quicker, and tney have time to look for new customers." Mr Jones has used other kinds of milking machines, but prefers the "A.W.R." He is particularly enthusiastic about the teat cup, and' says that it has not yet been ins experience to find it harden the teat of a cow, although he has found otner ceat cups do that.*