MILKING MACHINES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12898, 8 February 1906, Page 6

MILKING MACHINES.

On Friday last, in company with Mr J. j Sinclair Thomson, Mr J. P. MacEwan, j and some others interested, representatives | of the " Otago Daily Times" -were afforded as opportunity of witnessing the milking machine in practical operation at the farm of Mr A. Smaill, a well-known dairy farmer of Tomahawk. Mr Smaill is a dairy j farmer on a large scale, and milks a herd of 60 cows. In connection with .his dairying- operations, Mr Smaill'has recently installed four of the Lawrence-Kennedy-Gillies milking machines in his byres, and this plant and machinery have been running for three weeks. On the arrival of the visiting party, between 5 and 6 p.m., the machines were at work, and although there were 60 cows in the byre, the only persons in attendance were two men and a boy. and these it was stated ,with the aid of the machines, did the work formerly done by eight persons. There were four of the L.K.G. pulsators at work, and these were driven by b.h.p.' oil engine working a No. 2 vacuum pump. ' The milking of the 60 cows, Mr Smaill states, is accomplished | with the four machines -in one hour and j a quarter, hour less j than the work was-formerly done by eight hand-milkers. In addition .to the saving of time and expense, it is claimed that milking by the machines is-much cleaner, for. as the milk passes direct from, the teat into the milk pail, it> d#es not. come into> t-ontact with of the. bacteria: which may be floating in the air of the -byre. Each machine milks two cows at a time, and with four machines working, eight cows are milked in -from six, to eight- minutes : Th |. ®°Xsto Jthe. and -chew the-cud contentedly during the niilkiiip -operation, and 7 , there is an rbservable .abseßoc of--k;cking -or other of jiTUation. In one oi\two cases where the t-etiis were chapped the-animals showed no signs of irritation when, operated, iipon br the-machines, but. when they were being Bbupped by. h?uid the. animals .became aetata!. The amount of stripping noti4l i n thp S extremely small, and one of ge xnsjtflrs preset, a dairy, fanner, stated % raiall that he did not see tho nse Jel tt sfr SnraiU ' rertß'i f aclii pnuse of the