DAIRY PRODUCE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 288, 11 December 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

DAIRY PRODUCE NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent).

LONDON, October 30. THE DAIRY SHOW.

The DaiiT Show now in progress at the Aericultural Hall is considerably less interesting to colonists than mary of its predecessors were in that novelties in dairy and agricultural appliances are few in number and unimportant in character. The best of the dairying exhibits, in my opinion, is the new Radiator Buttermakef, a combined separator and churn for the automatic production of pasteurised butter direct from the milk in one continuous operation, occupying _ perhaps twelve minutes. The whole milk is heated in the pasteuriser to 160 degrees Fahr. by the waste steam from the engine and is kept at this temperature for ten minutes, it is then suddenly cooled in a closed vessel to suitable separating temperature, after which the cream is cooled to churning temperature, and the butter is delivered from the machine together with its butter milk. When the latter has been drawn off the butter grains are ready for the butter maker. In the latest pattern Radiator no ice is necessary for the purpose of reducing the temperature of the milk so long as water nob above GOdeg. Fah. is obtainable. By a very simple manipulation the machine can be set whilst at work bo produce cream instead of bubber. From a mechanical point of view the Badiator is a very ingenious and admirably constructed machine, which works with irreproachable regularity. In spice of the high speed with which it revolves, and the absence of any foundation, it works silently arid without vibration. The mode of mounting it is most simple and in every way within the reach of dairy servants.

From an industrial point of view the Eadiator offers several advantages. The space necessary for a complete dairy installation for 500 to 700 gallons of milk per day is only a room 20 feet square, including space for accessory work, and labour is reduced to a minimum. Two persons, in fact, suffice for attending, one to the boiler and engine, the other to the Radiator and its necessary appliances, dividing between them the butter working and the cleaning. The Radiator can operate either simply as a cream separator producing pasteurized cream, which can then be soured by addition of lactic ferments, or, at all times of the running, it can operate simultaneously as skimmer and churn. In the operation of cream separating the degree of clean skimming is as high as is practically possible. The churning is as complete as possible and does away with the anomalies incident to the souring of cream. The whole milk is pasteurized, skimmed, and its cream churned while almost completely protected against contact with the air, a very favourable condition. During the running the pasteurised cream is instantly brought down to suitable temperature, which is kept constant by regulating the admission of cold water. By this means one avoids the previous heating and cooling of the cream and also the faults in the butter itself caused by the raising of the temperature which invariably takes place when using ordinary churns.

Not only is the work continuous, but one can control all its stages rapidly during running within the following limits of temperature—from 85 degrees to 160 degrees for the skimming and from 54 degrees to 68 degrees for the churning. As regards the quality the butter leaves nothing to be desired although the cream has nob been soured ib is, besides, rendered independent of any special skill on the part of the attendants. The butter' is homogenously plastic, fine and of good consistency, has a fresh flavour, adelicate aroma, and owing to the pasteurisation of the milk ib has exceptional keeping properties. The simplicity of construction in the new Radiator is also a factor in its favour. Any man with a head not wholly of worsted can take it to pieces and put it together again, so the cleaning offers no difficulties. The new P.adiator is made in four sizes capable of dealing with 40, 100, 175 and 250 gallons of milk per hour, the prices being £46, £74, £96 and £114 respectively. Another invention which I have not seen at work before is a Yankee contrivance called ' Wahlin's butter-maker.' The advantages claimed for this ingenious machine are many, and like the Radiator it produces butter direct from new milk and can also be used as a cream-producer. In the matter of space the Wahlin requires even less room than the Radiator. The machine outwardly is not unlike an ordinary separator. Briefly, there are three chambers—the small receiving bowl, the inner separating chamber, and the bptteraccuinulating chamber. The milk is run into an ordinary receiver, the flow being regulated by a float, and from thence it passes into the receiving bowl, which acts as a spreader and auxiliary separator. The flow of milk into this bowl is regulated by the conical end of a long screw, carrying at the top a small vessel, containing (when desired) colouring matter from which the flow can be controlled to give the required colour. The milk works upwards in the howl and passes out through a series of small holes falling on to the conical walls of the revolving drum, where it is separated. The skim-milk at the outside of the milk column passes up through a pipe to an orifice from which it flows to the outlet. Meanwhile the cream globules are pressed towards the centre as in an ordinary separator, and escapes through, small holes and over the edge of the neck just below on to a convex cover or lid from which, when it is not desired to convert the cream into hutter, it passes to the cream outlet. When butter is required the cover or lid is lowered and instead of the cream passing to the outside it is diverted to flow over the neck on to the conical surface, extending therefrom and not down the cream outlet tube. It passes over this surface in an exceedingly fine film, and cream enters through small holes into the final butter-separating chamber. This is effected as the conical shape necessitates the more rapid travelling of the liquid as it proceeds, the heavier milk particles passing on, leaving the cream globules as it were partially stranded, _ and they accumulate or coalesce in a state of comparative dryness. In this way injury from concussion is avoided, the globules gather together in granular form although the buttermilk from which they are mechanically freed flows out of the same outlet acting as a lubricant and thus preventing the butter being bruised. The machine has been subjected to thorough trials and came out of the ordeal successfully. The analysis of the skim

milk showed that the separation was thorough. The butter was granular and of good colour, showing no signs of overwork. The machine is simple in construction, all the inner parts being smooth, easily got at, and, therefore, convenient to clean. The small holes from 'which the liquids pass from one chamber to another are placed slightly outward from the centre, consequently when warm water is placed in the machine to clean it, the force acquired by the centrifugal motion thoroughly cleanses them; moreover, the channels are in all instances less than an inch in length, and offer no difficulties in the matter of cleaning. The machine is said to work satisfactorily with milk ranging from 54deg to 6Gdeg Fahr., but from 56deg to 64deg Fahr. is preferred, according to the time of year. From butter-makers to egg-testers is a far cry, but a novelty is a novelty and the ' Rontgen Ray Egg Tester' certainly comes under this category. This distinctly ' happy notion ' is a very simple contrivance, and with it the housewife can at once detect stale ' sidey,' or less respectable members of eggdom. The machine is a simple little black box shaped like a piano case, with an opening formed by half the top and one side being cut away. In the half top left are holes to receive the suspected ovum, and at the bottom is a piece of looking-glass which reflects tbe eggs above. A fresh egg appears in the mirror as an almost bransparent sphere of pale golden colour, but this transparency decreases according to the condition of the egg until with the utterly disreputable it gives place to a gruesome opacity. Among the ordinary dairy and agricultural implements the hunters of novelties beat in vain, and for the rest the Show contains no new features. In the milk cart and van display one naturally expected to find something independent of animal or human propulsion, but strange to say the motor milk van was not in evidence. In the live stock department the Show is certainly equal to most of its predecessors, the show of Shorthorn, Polled Angus, and Jersey milkers being especially good. Several of the animals showed remarkable milk returns on the day I visited the show, their yields morning and evening being well over 301bs each sitting. One beast had a record of 7Hbs at two makings, and another had kept up an average of over 331bs for three days. This she somewhat improved on by giving 351bs 7oz when called upon on Wednesday evening. The show of goa/ts this year is, thanks to the British Goat Club, excellent, but I fancy it will require considerable persuasion to make the British farmer take a serious interesb in this animal as a means to increasing his profits. For myself I believe the British public would take kindly to goats' flesh as a variant on the eternal mutton and ever present beef. Perhaps some courageous Antipodean breeder of goats will try an experiment in this direction. He would certainly run no greater risk of loss than the shipper of Kangaroo tails. In the poultry and pigeon sections the Dairy Show this year is perhaps rather stronger than usual, a feature in the latter departmenb being the re-appearance of the ' working Homer' after an interval of nearly ten years.