414 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



MILKING MACHINES. 



By P. R. Zeigler, Boston, Mass. 



In talking of milking machines I am not here in the same 

 way as a professor of agriculture. I am interested in the sale 

 of a certain milking machine, and in what I have to say you are 

 at liberty to make such deductions as you see fit, although it 

 will be my intention to keep my statements confined to actual 

 facts. 



As far as milking machines in general are concerned, they 

 have been on the market about ten years, and in that length of 

 time they have increased from one machine to eight or ten. The 

 situation is very much like this: When the first milking 

 machine came out it was impossible to supply the demand for 

 it. The dairymen thought that this was the solution of their 

 dairy problems and they put in their orders and kept writing 

 the company, asking why they did not ship the machines. The 

 company was not prepared for the sudden demand, and a great 

 many of the machines that were shipped were failures and were 

 taken out. The milking machine as it was first put out called 

 for more thought and greater attention on the part of the 

 operator and it did not get the attention it required to be 

 successful. As the result of that experience, there was no 

 demand for a time. Then it was discovered that there were a 

 number of people who continued to use milking machines, and 

 so they came back into consideration again, and today we have 

 on the market eight or ten different makes, and of course they 

 are all more or less successful. The difference between the 

 machines is just the same as the difference between other pieces 

 of machinery. It is more a question of the amount of care 

 required to operate them, their simplicity or their complexity in 

 methods of operation. 



Just a few words in regard to the need of milking machines 

 A man came to me a little while ago and said, "There are so 



