THE FARM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 64, 16 March 1900, Page 3

THE FARM.

MACHINE MILKING AT BONGOTEA. When, half -a year ago, I visited Jtongotea and examined into the doings of the four Pulsator milking machines set up there, I made a promise that as the season went on, some time after Christmas, I would come again to report on its possible continuance in good behaviour, and on its effects for good or evil upon <£he cows and more partiexilarly their milk yield. As soon as the Palmer-s-ton North ram fair was over my tracks were laid for Jtongotea, and after going lover the route as before, and seeing the same men, I collected a body of information which, in so far as it is useful to our readers, is here reproduced. Visiting Mr Knight's place, it was discovered that he had moved into Kongotea to live, having leased his place, his cows, and his machine. Mr Height, the lessee, had that identical morning, after milking', gone off to look at some land, so his opinions re the Pulsator could nob be got at, though a general idea to the effect that he believed in and liked the machine was arrived at. That, however, was neither here nor there, and my business was to hunt up Mr Knight, and this I did, picking up Mr Broadbelt on my return to find out what his fortune had been. Here the machine, still kept on hand, was at rest, and had been for some months. As Mr Broadbelt warries on a butter-box making busiiwss, which occtipies the major part otf his itiine, dairying- has not the same importance for him as for others. Hence the putting to one side of the machine when he did so in November, when he resumed handmilking was not through any wana oi faith in its well-dioing, nor for any suspicion that the cows were falling off in their yield as a consequence of its use. In fact, Mr Broadbelt volunteered the statement that he did not believe that such was the case, for, from his observation, nothing of the like had happened. He said that the expense of maintenance, of the indiarubber teat fittings in particular, were a matter that tokl against it, and he was wishing that some material could be found that was better than indiarubber for the purpose. He had no notion of parting ! with the Pulsator, and meant giving it another trial another season. Returned to Rongotea I was not long1 in finding Mr Knight. He was quite as much pleased with the machine as before, or, indeed, more so. He described a new arrangement by which a difficulty had been got over, j The rubber milking- tubes, which had to be cleaned out with hot water and brushed the whole of their inside length twice daily, were costly at first, and wore out too rapidly in use. A : flexible steel tube Avas now employed,! made of coiled steel ribbon, overlap- i ping like weatherboards. This, if not hermetical, was nearly milkproof; the overlapping- . portions had each a groove that formed, the two facing, a tiny tube in which lay compressed a small elastic cord, much like the core of a piece of fine, round elastic. This ensured the air-proof condition, the milk was kept from the rubber, and the cleaning brushes could be used vigorously against steel, and yet could not touch the rubber cord. The indiarubber linings for the teat cups he did not think costly; they required to Tos replaced every two or three months, and cost no more than about twopence each. He had not found the machine shorten the milking period of the cows, and these, many of them, have been in his position for years, and their record is therefore known. The grip of the machine on the cow's teats might possibly be increased and with advantage, say with compressed air, to assist from outside the force obtained from the vacuum within. Heifers put on to the machine were no trouble at all, and were sooner educated to the use of the machine than old stagers. He had found it easier to break in a heifer to the machine •than to hand-milking. He had never yet found that a heifer had to be thi'own oft: the machine. Care naturally has to be taken that the animal is gradually inured to machine milking, a week being the average length of the apprenticeship. He had kept pace at the factory with other hand-milked herds, fell off in yield as they did, but no more. What was needed was a man who was of a disposition to make a friend of the machine and not a foe, and a six months' use of the Pulsator was required to make an average hand an expert, Mr Knight had to go through all this with no one to teach him. It may easily be understood that many a beginner's patience would wear out, and that before" the needful experience was acquired a rising disgust might induce him to throw up the machine. The plant, in all, had cost £100. Eunning the cows through the stalls as he did (see previous report) economises time greatly, whereas bailing and unbailing cows-in _ the •usual way took up too much time. Saving time means much for the cows; with hand milking- and a big herd, unless there is a good force of milkers, three hours night and morning were taken up. That meant that the cows are kept off their paddocks for that time, which materially reduces their feeding time, so that they have to feed at a rush, which is a disadvantage. As for himself, "he would not go back to hand-milking, never," where a big lot of cows had to be done, and_ it would not pay to put up a machine for less than thirty cows. , This agrees with what Mr Thomas Hastie, of • Okaiawa, told me in his experience with the "Thistle."' The next man to look up was Mr ■jfcehmond, and we came upon him as tat as if we had used Aladdin's lamp. fie was mounted on a Booth and Mac£onald gross seed stripper, and pulled Up at challenge. He had not given ■up the machine, though he had knocked off using it when the number fell to forty cows. His reasons were these: it fell to hit lot to affix the teat cups to the cows and to bail them, his two milking hands going on stripping and he doing his share in the time he had left, and carrying the milk away into the bargain. Considering that the machine had to be cleaned, and this took up a fair allowance of time, he preferred, when the herd had shrunk to the dimensions above referred to, to take his stool and.all three go at it handmilking. Asked if he would use it next season, he said he was going out of dairying. Pressed to a conclusion, he said if he were going on dairying he would stick to the machine and use it. One thing that led him to discontinue it when he did was that the bull that worked the tread power for the machine was needed in the herd, and another thing, a minor affair, was that sometimes, when a cow was disinclined to give her milk down in one pair of teats, a handmilker could go to the other pair and humour her.

returning1 to the first pair later oh. With the machine this could not be done. As for the machine's putting cows off their milk, he did not believe it. He had purposely taken the , cows off the machine for three days, found no difference in the yield as for increase, nor any decrease upon put- ! ting them on the machine again. I The Pulsator and the Manson and Ban- tread power cost him £82. ■ Last witness to call into court was ;Mr Carl Anderson. Tie had a I'uiI sutor, had used it for a term, and I though, not enthtisiastic about it, adihered to it after having used it for a | term. He did so because he might ihave something- to rely upon in ease ! his hand milkers left him, so that he and the members of his family could do the milking, in place of being thrown on their beam ends, lie was still looking for some cheaper lining material for the teat cups, which he reckoned cost fourpence each and wore out faster than Mr Knight had told me. Me, too, had no 'sort of belief that the machine short- | ened or harmfully affected the milk ■yield of a herd. I think our readers can be left to form their own conclusions from the ! foregoing1, which is written by one j who has neither enthusiasm, prejuj dice, nor self-interest to bias him.— i Special "Reporter '"New Zealand Times."