Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-02-19
"When Dreams
Come True

There was recently on display in !
the window of the Warner Mercantile !
Company at Ashland a striking poster
with the above legend. The lower |
portion represents a farm lad with a |
milk pail and discontented look get |
ting ready to milk cow Above |
was his dream OF a machine which |
would milk, in the form of the |
/ Sharples milking machine 1t was
( the good fortune Of the Tidings rep |
resentatiye to visit Houston Brothers |
ranch near Talent and witness the |
workings of a two-unit milking ma
chine Of this make and it was Ger
tainly a revelation. The machine has
been referred to as an electrical
milking machine, but such is not the
nature of the machine. In the in
| stance Of the Houston Brothers the
| power is furnished by an electric mo-
| tor, but any constant speed power
would do as well. The machine COM
prises two parts, the pumps and the
milking attachment. The pumps are
situated in the dairy house adjoining
the barn, together with the electric
motor and the separator. The pumps
are two in number, or rather double
pump acting in unison, one creating
an air pressure and the other a
vacuum. The action of the pumps
carries itself, through pressure pipes
and vacuum pipes and flexible rubber
tubes, to the milking attachment
which consists of eight flexible tubes
terminating in four small nickel cyl
inders with suction rings at the ends
which slip up over the teats. When
the pressure and vacuum are both
turned on they work alternately, au-
tomatically bringing suction and an
upward pressure to bear upon the
teats and udder. If you ever noticed
while man milks down, the calf
always milks up and bunts rather
than strips the udder to secure the
last drops of milk. Thus the alter
nate suction and pressure upward
more nearly approach nature than
human milking.
Houston Brothers nave a two-unit
machine; that is, set of pumps with
two sets of suction tubes. The writ
er forgot to state that the milk runs
down the short tubes into a large
bottOmed small-topped pail, which is
tightly closed, and which it is almost
impossible for the COW to tip over
should she step around. With a two
unit machine, such as Houston Broth
ers have, one man can milk 20 cows
in an hour, and as they will have the
separator coupled up to the same
shaft as the pumps, when the milk
ing is done the separating is com
pleted, or practically so. Mr.. Hous-
ton states that the machine is a per-
feet success, that while it is more
practical to strip the COWS a little,
because OF the fact that often one
teat gives more than others, and to
be certain that the cow is perfectly
dry, that the mechanical method is
not only more rapid but more eco
nomical and more sanitary. He
states that he hopes in time to double
his present herd of "a cows and that
then he will install two more milk
ing units. The cost, exclusive of the
motor, was $3.50 for a two-unit ma
chine.
This machine is, so far as the writ
er is able to learn, the only one in
this part of the county, If not in the
entire valley or southern Oregon, but
it is safe to predict that it will mean
much to the dairy interests of the
state. When the owner of herd Of
twenty cows can do the milking and
care for the milk of 20 cows in two
hours a day it goes a long way to-
ward solving the help problem.
Houston Brothers started with q
mixed herd but are rapidly building
up fine herd of Jerseys and will
this week exchange the remaining
Durhams in their herd for Jersey
cows.
They are also the owners of the
fine Buckeye orchards and are firm
believers in the necessity of diversi-
fled farming.
1t would pay anyone contemplate
ing going into dairying to visit their
ranch at milking time The Tidlngs
is not boosting this particular milk
ing machine, but simply investigated
1t as something new to this section,
and in fact to the dairy world, and
finds 1t to be a success. There are
other milking machines, we believe,
on the market, but know nothing of
their merits
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