MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 7751, 24 October 1888, Page 4

MELBOURNE EXHIBITION.

THE MODEL DAIRIES,

J'Feom Our Special Reporter. | The Victorian Government have been to a ver y considerable expense in fitting up accommodation tor fcho model dairiss which are in operation in fee building. These are situated in the eastern permanent machmery-in-motion annexe, where power is available for working the various machines. There are three of these model dairies, which arc fullv fitted up with all the machinery and annliances necessary for efficiently carrying on the various process. The larger space is devoted to the butter factory, which fullv illustrates the factory system of dealing with farmers' milk and making the same into butter of the finest description. Mr D Wilson, the superintendent ol the Government dairy, and an efficient staff, are daily in attendance. The separators are worked every day, from li to 12 a.m. The butter factory is shown in full operation, as it would be in a proper concern, everv Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; morning A ° n Saturday nights from? to g m B ' A farmers' dairy plant is shown, worked by #» oru* nar y farm horse « ea fThe third da'ry shows a cheese factory in full operation o* Mondays and Tuesdays. The Victorian Government are taking up the question of th* improvement of the dairy products in a my whole-hearted manner In addition to keepiag the large staff at the Exhibition, they are sending a working dairy round the colony to instruct the farmers in the various districts the art of making the best possible samples. They auite recognise the faet tfaat if an export trade is to be done good brands must be sent away from the colony, or disastrous results must be the outcome. # Victoria shows the other colonies a good , example in this direction. Every one of the I agricultural societies are subsidised, and are in consequence enabled to offer goodprisws and erect permanent buildings on their properties. In addition they offer large and Substantial prizes for machines that are necessary for farmers, and which are not at present being made by any of the manufacturers. These substantial prizes enable manufacturers to launch out and encourage their inventive aapabilitieH. The butter factory especially at the Exhibition is a great centre of for farmers' wive« and daughters. Opposite the iactory the Government have erected a gallery, with rows of seats rising one above SeotL; this is very fairly felled.daring •the time the factory is working. The milk 5s received in tin cans from the milk «art; these are lifted into a room where the mitt is weighed and tested. It is then poured into a tank, from which it runs into a pipe, which supplies the tank from which the separators are ..applied. All these tanks are so arranged that the milk is kept as cool as possible, and strained and protected from dust, etc. Three of D. Laval a separators take the cream from the milk. The skim milk runs from each separator into * trough, which conveys it to a receptacle. From this, in ordinary butter factories, it would be returned to the farmer or convayed *way to the pig-atieß in connection with the factory. Here, however, the managers of the dairy make a more profitable use of the rikimmed milk, as they sell it to the public at the rate of threepence for a very moderate «ized glass, and they appear to do a very ifair trade. Most of our readers will think ihis rather an excessive price to pay for skim anllk but it shows that even at this extreme £OVLTt a sufficient trade is to be done. Butter factories in the neighborhood of our large towns might find a profitable output their skim milk by supplying a

shop in a central position with a portion which could be retailed out at a nominal price— say, 2d for a long plass. I commend the idea to our Good templar friends. Surely there are sufficient people who on a warm day would prefer a glass of light skim milk to something more heady. The separator is proving itself nearly indispensable in Australia, where the climate prevents milk from being kept for any length of time. Already in New South Wales alone there are six factories and over seventy private dairies using these machines. Tn addition, they arc having o. very rapid sale in Victoria, where increasing attention is being devoted to dairying pursuits. It is evident to anyone that, if the industry can bo a success in droughty Australia, it ought to be the mainstay of such a favored land as New Zealand. If we have not fjot, nor can get, population of our own, at least let us take advantage of the_ expensive _ steam service the colony is maintaining with the populated Old Country, and secure a share of the millions England sends away every year for milk, butter, and cheese. If Anstralia can do anything with her dairies, Now Zealand ought to be able to do a hundred times as much. If our people only had a tithe the confidence in their country that Victorians have in theirs, wo would he the first colony of the group. Our advantages in nearly • every direction are iimmeasurably superior. In addition to the three ordinary 90-gallon separators with whicli Mason and Strutters, of Christchurcli, have made our farmers fairly well acquainted, there shown in operation one of Do Laval's turbine separators. In this machine the bowl is coupled direct to a turbine, into which steam is brought from the steam boilers. The turbiuc drives the machine at the rate of 7,000 revolutions per minute. Where an engine is not required this form is better adapted, as there is no room occupied by the intermediate ; there are no belts to slip and give trouble. All the attendant has to do is to open a valve and the separator starts to work. The machine is fitted with a pump, which can be used to force the skim milk to any distance. A horizontal hand-power separator, and also a baby separator, are shown in work. The latter skims twelve gallons of milk per hour, and costs Ll6. It is evident that the use of the cream separator saves a very large amount of room where a new dairy is to be built. All expense of shelving and pans for setting is saved. The manufactures yields 15 to 20 per cent, more cream, as there is no waste in the skimming process. Losses owing to hot and thundery weather are avoided, and e> considerably better article is manufactured. A3 an example of the latter statement, I may mention that the butter manufactured at the Exhibition is selling as fast as it is made at Is 6d per lb. Very good butter can be bought at the shops at 9d ; the best hand-made dairy butter in Melbourne cannot command more than Is per lb. A lactometer is shown for testing the milk brought to the factory. It is well known that milk from diffeicut cows and districts varies much in the amount of cream con-1 taincd in it. The old plan of testing it was to set a portion of the milk in small tubes, and at the end of forty-eight hours see what the proportion of milk to cream was. The machine under notice enables this proportion to be ascertained in five minutes, j Whilst the farmer waits his milk can be tested, and the real value of his milk ascertained and paid for accordingly. The machine consists of a disc, perforated to hold six test tui.es of milk. The disc is rapidly rotated, and, on the same principle as the separator, the cream is separated from the milk, and on the test tubes being removed the proportion is immediately seen. From the separators the cream is removed in tin receptacles, and if butter is not being made that day it is kept either in a Cooley patent creamery or in a cool chamber ; it is then placed in square box revolving churns, which the superintendent prefers to all others, being easily cleaned, and where power is available the exertion required to revolve them is not a ssrious matter. Thechurns have no beaters whatever, but are simple square boxes hung on spindles which revolve on friction wheels. There are two shown in the factory, one of 400 gallons, j the other 150 gallons—both are of Melbourne manufacture. From the churns the butter goes to the Delaiteuse, which is a cylinder surrounded by perforated zinc, which is revolved at a very high rate of speed ; into the cylinder the granulated butter from the churn 3 is placed, the machine is started, and the swift revolution forces by centrifugal force tho whole of the buttermilk to the outside of the cylinder, leaving the butter inside free from all buttermilk. The machine takes about fifteen minutes to get up speed, do its work, be stopped, and have thechargc takenout.and another lot of butter placed in the machine. From the Delaiteuse the butter goes to the butter workers, which complete the working up and consolidate the granulated butter. Two of these machines are used, one an English machine. The cylinder moves backward and forward on tho table, pressing the bntter and working it up without the necessity for the hands touching it. The other is a Victorian make. In this machine a circular revolving table passes under a revolving roller, which works up the butter. Of the two machines the superintendent prefers tho Victorian, as_ it is worked by power, whereas the English machine has to be worked by hand. The butter sold in the Exhibition is put lip in long square rolls, but a machine is exhibited which prints each pat, and makes each an exact weight. This is done by a lever pressing the butter into a square box with print pattern at bottom, the surplus butter being squeezed put at the sides. The farm dairy is, of course, fitted up in a much more simple manner. A horse gear is shown as it would be giving off power to the separator, which is of the usual size, capable of separating 90gal per hour. A square barrel-churn, capable of making_6olb of butter, is worked from the same spindle as the separator. This is of the same description as those working in the butter factory. A circular of the same design a3 those in the factory prepares the butter for market. The cost of the three articles—separator, churn, and butterworker—will not exceed L7Q. A feature of all the dairies is the use made of what is called terra cotta lumber for making cooling chambers. This lumber, as it is called, consists of long bricks, broader and wider than the usual bricks.. These are perforated the entire length with two holes about 2in square ; the bricks are made of a mijitrVe of clay and sawdust, and are said to be spiegdid non-conductors of both heat and damp; a&4 as they can be sawn and nailed too, they ftr.e very suitable for dairies. Tiieir manufacture is undertaken by a company floated for the purpose. They ought to be made at a low pri&s, and will no doubt come into general use. The chawAe* 1 built in connection with the farmers' dairy ic shown fitted with a circulating fan, which 6to b,e driven by any Ciptive power available. This can be made to ±ob in two ways—it either draws air in from outside through a refrigerator and distributes it inside, or it keeps the air inside circulating through a refrigerator, in order tits* the temperate may be kept down. This will be a useful and necessary adjunct to a dairy w the hot climate ,of Australia. Happily itis,on.» flf the expensive additions to dairy appliance we can dispense with in the South. Island of itfew Zealand. In addition to the two bntter dairies, there are exhibited in all spare comers round a collection of all the necessaries of tiw dairyman. A Melbourne-made refrir gerator reduces the temperature of milk 20deg with oece passing over it, and would be very U3efui \yhere the old-fashioned plan of getting milk is still _ adhered to. A Cooley patent creamery ia shown. In this milk is placed in deep tin vessels, which are lowered into a tank of cold water. When the cream has set the milk Is drawn off without disturbing the eream, which remains in the vessels. This apparatus ig also recommended and used in the factory for keeping cr/Cj»m over for churning next day, The superintendent of the dairy also snows his improved market butter boxes, which hold j 140 half-pounds of butter. These boxes and compartments are coated with shellac, and ventilation from bottom to top is provided. Farmers 3 portable dairy cans, and a variety of tho various chums manufactured in Victoria are shown. These, however, do not vary in any important particular from those well known in New Zealand, and I will not refer at length to them.

In the British court Bradford, of Manchester, shows u variety of Ids churns and butter workers. The former consist of octagon and end-over-end churns. The beaters ordinarily used are replaced by a diaphragm which give:• tho required action to the cream. The butter workers shown, suitable for very small dairies, consist of a fluted roller and a board ; for larger dairies the roller travels backward and forward, and rotates with one movement of the handle.

I have taken more space with the butter factories than I intended. I must defer ™tica o{ tl\e cheese factory till next week : but before leaving these dairy exhibits, I must allude to the immense stride made in dairy machinery during the last ten years. The English nation can take little credit for this. To Danish and Swedish inventors and professors all the credit is due for ousting the old-fashioned ideas from our dairies, which, until they appeared on the scene, remained in much the same condition as they did for centuries. Some of the romance has gone. The dairymaid of tho future will have to know something about machinery ; but I do not Rce why this should render her loss attractive than some of our poets and writers of the past have represented her.