4l8 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



sider are the pumps, the pipe Hue and the milker. The pump 

 is used to create a vacuum. That is one thing that is absolutely 

 essential. You must have a reliable, steady, constant vacuum. 

 When we started with the machines people asked us if they 

 could not, to save expense, create a vacuum by an injector, a 

 device through which steam passed. As it passes through the 

 pipe line it draws the air through and creates a vacuum. That 

 can be done and we can milk successfully, but the most of the 

 boilers that produced the steam in those early days were fired 

 by wood. That would make a hot fire and a sufficient vacuum 

 and then the fire would cool off and the vacuum would fall, 

 and the result was unsatisfactory. We had a pump which was 

 a crude affair. The pistons were packed with leather, and 

 pretty soon the pump was not as effective ; we did not have 

 enough vacuum. We have remedied all those difficulties by 

 making ourselves a vacuum pump, working on the same prin- 

 ciple as a gasolene engine. 



Now our pipe line was the second question. When we first 

 put out the pipe we used black pipe which rusts easily. There is 

 more or less moisture in the pipe line on account of the pipe 

 being cold and the air warm so that the moisture in the air is 

 precipitated, and the pipe rusted, which tended to block up the 

 opening, and pretty soon we did not have passage enough. Now 

 we use nothing but galvanized iron. 



The third point is the machine itself. In the machine we 

 have, the principal thing after all is the teat cup. In milking 

 a cow, if you use suction — and all of the machines on the mar- 

 ket that might be said to be practical are suction machines — 

 you must have absolute relief on the cow's teats. If you have 

 a steady suction she will not give down her milk. We found 

 that if the little hole through which the relief was afforded 

 became stopped up, there was trouble. This difficulty was 

 eliminated. When the automobiles were first manufactured, 

 we would find a man under his machine very often. Now- 

 adays they go right along. It is the same way with milking 

 machines. These things have been ironed out. 



I will now put on the screen some pictures showing different 

 types of milking machines. 



