Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-07-25
THE MILKING MACHINE.

10 my hiON1SuSS.
THE MILKING MACHINE.
According to a preliminary report
of the United States bureau of animal
industry, there are over 1000 milk
ing machines now in daily use in the
United States. The author, c. B.
Lane. tells us that efforts have been
made by scores of inventors for mere
than half century to make a machine
that would milk COWS satisfactorily
and without injury. From 1872 t.
1905, inclusive, 127 patents were taken
out in this country alone for milking
machines or separate parts of them.
Most of them have failed in some re-
spect, and not until recently has any
one of them gone into extended use
The prospect of their general intro
duction led to the experiments de-
scribcd in this report The report
shows that the machines have the al
vartage in more than one respect over
hand milking. Says Mr.. Lane
Naturally one of the first questions
asked when a dairyman is considering
the installation of milking machines is,
How much time will be saved by
their use? A glance at the general av-
erages for 80 days shows that the av-
erage time required for one man to
milk four COWS with the machine was
1902 minutes in the morning and
1857 minutes in the evening, or a to-
80 q In,
case of the four COWS MIXED by hand
it will be noted that it took an aver.
age of 21.SS minutes to milk them in
the morning and 1871 minutes in the
evening, or a total of 40.59 minutes
for the day. There was thus a daily
saving of IS minutes cow, or four
teen minu IS on four COWS, through
the use of the machines. 1t should be
noted, however, that the time saved by
the employment of machines was NOT
the result of greater speed in milking,
but in the operators ability to milk
two COWS at once. Indeed, one man
can look after five machines milking
10 COWS at once, thus greatly {incraas-
ing this saving of time
The pulsator can be adjusted so that
the action will be fast or slow. Fifty
to 60 pulsatiOns a minute is the rate
usually recommended. The more
rapid the pulsations the faster the
machine will milk up to a certain
limit The writer saw one COW
giving a good flow milke1 absolutely
clean with machine in pa min
utes, the number of pulsatiOns being
$50 a minute 1t is believed, however,
that such rapid milking for any length
of time has a bad influence upon the
cow.
The yield of milk is perhaps the
most important matter to the dairy
man. Any method of milking that has
a tendency to decrease the flow to
any appreciate extent can hardly be
considered practicable. This point
was studied for a period of thirty days
in this experiment with the milking
machine The total yield of milk for
four COWS during thirty days was
189875 pounds from hand milking
and 1960.25 pounds from machine
milking not including strippings, diff
ference of 61,5 pounds, or 3.24 per
cent, in favor Of the machine.
1t is of interest to note how the
milking machine affects a herd of COWS
the first time it is used. The writer
was present in a barn Of about 40
COWS on one occasion the first time
the machines were put in Operat on.
Some of the animals were a little
restless at first, owing to the sight of
the machines and the clicking of the
pu!sators. but soon they became quiet
and reconciled to their action. One
feature which is perhaps a little sur,
rrising is that heifers took to the ma,
chine as readily as the older COWS.
The majority of the COWS appeared to
like the machines and stood quietly.