No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Jul 



they have come to stay. I believe where good men are employed 

 and placed in charge of the machines, that they will be a success. 



A Member: They are all power machines that you have seen? 



PROF. VAN NORMAN: Yes, I don't know of any small machine 

 that has risen to any general recognition. The machine of the Bur- 

 rell people has got to that point where it is getting into commer- 

 cial practice. I know of a number of farmers that have put them 

 in. They are wealthy men, it is true, but they are looking after the 

 dollar. 



The disadvantages will be, there will be some cows that will be 

 diflScult to milk. A man who will take the precautions that are 

 necessary can keep them clean, and the expense of doing that will 

 not, in my judgment, be prohibitive. 



A Member: How expensive are the machines? 



PROF. VAN NORMAN: The machine itself to do the work only 

 costs about $75, and then there is the pipe and you have to have an 

 engine of some kind to get the necessary vacuum and you have to 

 have a pump. I remember one gentleman who figured a cost of |800 

 for about sixty cows; it was a good deal less expensive than two 

 men. 



I saw a machine milking sixty-four cows in one hour and sixteen 

 minutes, and found thirty-two cows with less than six pounds of 

 sirippiugs. I do not think you can do that with men milking. I 

 found one man who said he had discontinued his strippings, be- 

 cause he got so little. 



I don't advise the general farmer to go ahead in the use of these 

 machines at present; let the other fellow experiment a little longer. 



A Member: I understand that Mr. Billings is operating a milk- 

 ing machine, and I would like to hear from him. 



MR. BILLINGS: Mr. Chairman, we are trying a foot-power ma- 

 chine. We have been operating it for three months. It has been, 

 we consider, a great success with us. 



We were having difificulty to get help that was efficient to handle 

 our dairy. We heard of this machine and we ordered two and 

 brought them into our herd and they are doing very satisfactory 

 work, for this reason; a man with one of these machines can do twice 

 the amount of work, and he produces a great deal cleaner article 

 than he can in any other way. 



I found one man who had a machine and threw it out because he 

 was not there to look after it himself. Now the machine has got to 

 be .looked after, to keep it clean, but it is not difficult if you are 

 right tha-e, and watch it closely. 



With this machine, one man can milk about sixteen cows per 

 hour. With our herd, it takes a good man to milk eight cows per 

 hour by hand. You can sit down there and milk all day with the 

 machine the same as you can go on to your farm and do any other 

 M^ork, and you are not exhausted. We didn't know when we went 

 into our plowed fields this spring but that it might worry us a little 

 when we got to milking there, but we are well satisfied and con- 

 sider that the machine is a great success as far as we have experi- 



