The Palmerston Dairy Factory.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 270, 11 October 1884, Page 3

The Palmerston Dairy Factory.

Since the occasion of our last visit to the Factory, the Company's building and property generally have assumed a much more finished appearance; indeed it n expected that operations will be commenced m a very short time. The arrangements which have been made are sb> carried oat as to afford every facility and convenience to those who will have to mani pulate the milk and thus save as much labour as possible. Thus, m ;■•'■ the first instance the delivery carts ' will be backed under the milk-receiv-ing balcony, up to which the lnilkcans fall of milk will be hauled by means of pullies. They (hen pass through a trap door m the floor of the balcony, and are received by the -- : dairyman aloft. From here the cans ar6 slid into the weighing stage, and the quantity of milk booked to the credit of the supplier, after which it is emptied into a large vat, of 250 gallons capacity, fitted with double bottom and sides. There are two of - these vats, one of which will be kept entirely for morning use and the other for eveuing milk. Between the inside and outside of these vais run a s«t of parallel wooden compart • 'ments, on the principle of screw threads, along ' which a continuous stream of water will flow, entering at the top and gradually percolatiug downwards until the Itottom is reached, after which it runs out of an escape valve, and away. By the timo ' ' 'ihe milk has reached these vats or re- . jceptacles it has passed through a i good many opera ions. First, the milking, then carting to the Fac ory, . and then the lifting and weighing and emptying into the vats. But it bars now only reached the first stage •;,.; of the actual dairying process, having just arrived; It lias next to pass through the steam separator, then be poured off into receptacles, the cream m one, and the milk m another. Then the cream is submitted to tlie churn, made into, butter, «pas- . sed through the butter-workers, made into pate, packed up and sold, whilst the milk is carted away and retailed v m town, and what cannot be sold is : run into the pig troughs-. These are , the various operations which we i shall attempt to describe. From the - receiving; vats then, the milk is led . to the separator by turning on a lap - underneath. The separators, of which / there are three of the description i mown as the <: Nakßkov" patent, con- :••: taiijj about six gallons each, and are . driven bysleani power. The princi- .. pie of the operation of separating the cream from the milk is based upon . the -centrifugal force which is created when fluids ; are revolving at a very high speed. These machines are ,:■ made to work at the extremely rapid « :•■ rate of 35.00 revolutions per minute. .< ; The whole of the receptacle spins t : round, the milk going with it, and ; ■ the different fluids at once separate from another being different m ;, weight and specific" gravity. iThe v mil k•■ being the : heaviest col lects -■ at the outside and upper portion of }.' the liquid/ which assumes a concaveconical form when revolving, and a recess: is made m the upper part of , the. bowl, just at the proper place, , into which this milk naturally flows. „.■; The- cream, on the other. hand, being .light; remains nearer to the centre of ]i -the?;bowl. In order to collect these l>- fluids and keep them apart, two brass U tubes with fine pointed noses, are held '•-; by, means' of screws; so as to just take up the several fluids, one the milk,' : the other the creamy these being afterwards conducted by the same brass pipes to - two : separate basins . - Meanwhile, as the pipes exhaust the liquid, a third one is feeding it all the while ... with more new milk, and so the whole .. of the milk is passed through three machines is an almost incredibly short tfpace of'time, when/ under the old system, it .would have taken twelve Ko'urs; before the milk would be ready for skimming. We have now the - two articles to manipulate or dispose of, viz., the cretin and the milk. Let it lie distinctly understood that this is not skimmed milk. What it is we •hall attempt to define later T>n, and confine ourselves with converting the cream into butter for the present. To .4.0 this the, cream " poured from the • basin 1 into which the separator pitt it, into the steam churns, of which the Company have two, on the Holstein each capable of churning. !^3sjgallons of cream. These are very much like the old-fashioned "dash" churns m principle, the difference being that 'instead of having an old woman plunging a stick with a knob at Ihe end into a closed bucket m a country farm-house . m England, we have a fan with a horizontal movement spinning round and worked by a, steam-engine, m the enterprising 'colonial town of Palmerston North. And, mark you, the difference is a Very great one, for while the old woman might manage to beat out two gallons of cream into: butter, the Holstein steam churn; makes' its twenty, with little or no no labour. The churning over, the butter is made, and it only remains; to work it up, wash away all traces of milk, and salt it. This is all done m the. new f'Embree" butter working machine, that the Company have ' -provided. It consists of a fluted y conical roller j revolving with a cireultfr table, the butter being squeezed through , small apertures and being subjected to a thorough " kneading," so to speak, it being washed all the while and salted afterwards. The Way this machine works is very pretty, there being, thin, sharp, wedge-.shxped guides at all places where they are required to prevent the' butter from finding its way amongst the joints and bearings or escaping being jammed by the. squAzer. - All this time no human hand or finger has been used' to manipulate either milk, cream or butter. At the stage our butter hao now reached, we should expect to find the dairymaid with sleeves tucked up elbow deep, washing the butter by hand. At least this is what is usually understood by the general publio as the manner m which the kneading and Washing is done. Certainly no ome? could raise objection to the snow^rhite arms of a) healthy English country hiss being 1 admitted into tlie butter tub ; but were it known that a raw-boned man of some forty-five summers made it his daily occupation to.PJtongo hw brawny arms into the; butter-tub/ with profuse perapmition, whiih it ia proverbial for all honest

men to haye,strearaing down his face, the picture would become less rouiaulic and the butter less invitinar. It is to save any inuendo of this kind being cast that the Palmercton Dtfiry Factory Company have provided ihe * most improved descriptions of machinery m the shape of a butterworker. When the butter has been sufficiently worked, it is placed to "cool m a chamber made fot' the purpose with double sides, between which water continually Hows. After being cooled it is patted up into moulds, packed iv cases or kegs and, if not sold, stored away m a cellar built underground with brick, and lined with cement, with two pipes connecting with the ground floor and terminating, near -the steam boiler, so as to cause any stagnant air that may have collected to be drawn out of the cellar. About 4 tons of butter m kegs can be stored m this underground store room which measure^ 10ft x 12ft x Bft high, and it is expected to prove a very great convenience, and source of economy, since by its use all butter m stock will he easily kept fresh until a suitable market be found, this obviating the necessity of selling m a forced market. We have now seen the operations and utensils connected with the but" ter making. There are many other appliances and fittings which though not directly used m manufacturing butter are .still either necessaries or of greav advantage. $hus the steam engine, which is 6 horss power will be fitted outside the building. All the floors are of cement, excepting iust the roof of the cellar, and are provided with a gutter and sloping floor to carry away all wet after wash ing the floors. Then the building it self contains five rooms, not counting the * engine-room. These aretho ser parating room, the manufacturing room, the washing room, the k egging room, and the office. . The steam power is made use of to lift goods out of the cellar,and a steam hose will be used for washing out all cans, vats, etc., m air parts ; of the building. The walls of all the rooms are match-lined,and the roof also, the latter being 1 padded with felting between the lining and the iron. The walls have air chambers, which are meant to serve thu same purpose as the felt m keeping- a uniform temperature m the building, and at a height of about 4ft. from the ground sibling ventilators are fixed to regulate it more' easily. Really, every credit is due" to, the directors and manager for the complete way; m which everything is done. fie., garding Jjhe milk which is separated from- the cream, it. must be explained that the act of skimming milk takes a great deal out pi it that is not. required for actually making butter, and 'leaves a very poor residue behind m the shape of •' skimmed milk " which has that sickly, sky-blue appearance that is very well known to everybody. But when milk is put through a steam sepaiaror, it is done with a view to separating jus'tf-what is required for making butter from the remaider of the milk. The consequence is the residue that is left after passing through a st( a v separator w very little different m quality to fresh milk itself, the only component parts that have been extracted being the fatty parts of the milk. They say it requires an expert to tell whether milk has been "separated " or not, and, even he, cannot always tell. Now it is mHi is that ihe Butter Factory place their chief hopes ;of success. They will buy milk at 3|d delivered, from the settlers. They ■will-"" separate" it, or extract sufficient material from every three gallons of it to make 1 lb.'.of butter, this operation only .absorbing 4 per cent, of its bulk,jund they will then have 96 per cent or nearly the whole of their milk,frebh,rich and sweet,ready for sale again to the first purchaser. It is theii; intention to : run it into town twice daily, and sell it at the very nominal charge of 4d per gallon, at which »Viee, for really pjure good milk, there should be no limit to the demand. Paradoxical though it may seem it comes to this :— The Factory 'will" buy say 600 gallons of milk per diem at 3£d per gallon, or £8 2s 6d the whole; they will then extract 200 lbs of butter from it, value at least la per lb., or £10, and then sell the milk, (leas 4 per-'cent,) of which I here would remain 576 gallons, at 4d per gallon, or J£9 12s v thus making a profit of il 10s 6d per diem on the milk, aud £10 per diem, m addition, on the jbniter. = Or, to- put it still more lucidly, they will make a profit on the milk and get their butter for nothing! Of course, it is not anticipated that these returns will be actually made, for between forming a thebiy and putting it info practice there are many contingencies to be provided for. Thus, if the, milk cannot be sold? The Company will. then, have a lai ge quantity of a very delicate commodity on their hands, which mu»t be dealt with immediately or.wjtHte. Provision has been made against such a contingency which is a possible or eyen. probable one, by buildingf a piggery m conjunction with the; : factory, m which a largo, number of pigs will lie kept if there is much spare milk on Land. This is not looked upon, however, as such a .profitable' way of disposing of tho milk as . that of selling it at. id per 'gallon. But time will show these points, and the'opening of the 'factory 'may be looked forward to with interest, as it is upon thep'e very details that the main chancts of success or failure of the enterprise depend. One very important— m fact indispens ibleset of articles the cautious manager has armed himself with. It is a box of milk testing apparatus. Not that our farmers are suspected m any way. Far from it; their integrity is undoubted. But still these glasses are there, and there is no knowing how far the fact- of the Company's having; nhem will go towards strengthening those feelings of integrity which we thus freely credit tlie farmers with possessing. They consist of a/1 t feeroineter, a Cream-ometer, and a Hydrometer, and the Company's Manager freely understands their several uses, having studied chemistry for analytical purposes when at Home. There are many other details < which we might bore our readers with m this already rather full report, sach as the 8 acres of land, and the pipes that lead from the factory to the piggeries, and .the double action steam pump, which -forces the water up from a 50ft driven pipe; suck as the convenience of the

site on which the building stands, being as it is at the junction of the two lines of railway and opposite a flag-station ; such as the central posi tion which the factory occupies m the Karere district, where there is so much splendid laud that is too rich lor ordinary wool growing or stock raising, and too thickly covered with logs and stumps to be yet available for ploughing ) and a great many other things. But these must be omitted, as also must all attempts at calculating what returns and profits the shareholders may expect to receive from the sale of butter and milk. A visit m person, will very boom show the former, whilst time alone and an annual average of profit and loss will afford data for Ihe latter to be worked out. One word of praise we must give to the Director.-, for the able and careful manner m which everything has been carried out. Messrs Ferguson and Monnul may be seen almost constantly at work, giving directions or doing something for the factory; but to Mr Ferguson the most hearty thanks of the Company are especially due We hope that it may be our pleasant duty to lay butore our readers an annual balance sheet, showing haudsome profits and large returns, as a reward for the enterprise the people of Pal mersion- have shewn m setting such* a useful concern on foot as the Dairy Factory.