FARM REFRIGERATORS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 25 (Supplement)

FARM REFRIGERATORS

PROPOSAL FOR MILK COOLING. SUGGESTION OF EXPERIMENTS. The difficult of obtaining satisfactory water for cooling milk and cream on many farms in Taranaki; has led to the suggestion that this trouble might be overcome .. by means , of portable farm freezers. The present methods of cooling are not uniform, and are certainly far from Satisfactory. It is thought that the time is opportune to experiment with th® cooling of milk and cream by new methods with a view to ascertaining whether a practicable system can be attained.

If' successful there should be a large gale for refrigerators and this would aid local industry and employment and also assist power boards in the sale of additional electricity.

Much data has yet to be obtained as to whether the running costs would bs within the range of practical economy, the keeping qualities of milk and cream improved when compared with the present .methods 'and whether; there would be compensating reductions in transport costs and a better quality of product.

Mr. P. O. Veale, dairy; scientist at the Hawera dairy laboratory, is favourably impressed with the proposal and if. a bacterial . count were made of treated and untreated supplies it would definitely establish the value or otherwise of the new process.

The present methods of cooling are not completely satisfactory on account of the water temperatures not being low enough, but if the standard of the freezer were adopted it would be easily possible to make the standard of temperature as low as 45 degrees with a fair degree of certainty, whereas at present 65 degrees is in many eases unattain-' able. • ■ . '" ■ " ■

The cost of refrigerators' would undoubtedly be high, perhaps too high for consideration at present, but under mass production for quantities freezers might easily be brought to a price level that would permit of their general adoption.

Against the additional cost must be set the improvement inequality. In cases of “non-acid” milk, for instance, prompt reduction on the farm of the temperature of- 1 the milk would almost entirely eliminate this trouble.