MrLK-PLAXT OPERATION. 



COOUNG. 



The milk should be thoroughly cooled after heating and holding, 

 and in order to assure this it is necessary that the cooler be of suffi- 

 cient capacity. When the cooler is not large enough, care must be 

 taken to see that the milk does not pass over it too fast, because if it 

 does it will not be properly cooled. The milk should also be cooled 

 with the least possible agitation. 



Milk may be cooled in the vats, but in that case care should be 

 taken not to injure the cream line; to prevent such injury the milk 

 should be cooled C{uickly, \\ath as little agitation as possible. It is 

 more satisfactory to have a separate cooler large enough to permit 

 quick cooling, so as to increase the capacity of the pasteurizing ap- 

 paratus. Temperature recorders may be attached to the cooler in 

 order to record the temperatures to which the milk has been 

 cooled. 



BOTTLING AND CAPPING. 



As soon as the milk is pasteurized and cooled it should be put im- 

 mediately into clean, sterile, cool bottles. The process of bottling 

 and capping can be carried on at the same time as the jiasteurizing 

 process when a continuous-flow system of pasteurizing is used. The 

 capacity of the pasteurizing outfit and the bottle filler should there- 

 fore be approximately the same, and this should be such that the 

 work of pasteurizing and bottling in medium-sized and srgiall plants 

 may be done in fom* or five hours. Then the same set of men can 

 be used during the remainder of the day for other work, such as 

 receiving and weigliing the milk and washing the bottles and cans. 

 In small plants where one pasteurizing vat is used, two men can 

 dump the milk into the vat as it is received, and as soon as it is 

 pasteurized it may be run over the cooler, and the same two men 

 can do the filling and capping. 



The bottling should be done by machine. A machine capper 

 also is desirable. 



MAN-HOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR BOTTLING MILK BY VARIOUS METHODS. 



A study was made of the labor requirements in iilling and cap])ing 

 milk at milk plants in several of the larger cities in the United 

 States. Figures were obtained for the lal)or used for the actual 

 bottling and filling; they do not include packing of milk in the 

 storage room after bottling. Five methods of bottling were con- 

 sidered : 



1. The large, automatic, ]K)wer fillers and ca})pei'S, which fill and 

 cap the bottles in the case, a full case at a time. (See Fig. 4.) 



2. The smaller rotary tyj^e of automatic iillei"s and ca])])ers, wliich 

 work automatically, but in which the bottles arc taken out of the 

 cases, and are returned to them after being filled and capped. (See 

 Figs. 5 and 6.) 



3. Automatic single-row fillers and cappers in which bottles are 

 removed from cases and ])assed through the machines in rows. (See 

 Fig. 7.) 



4. Maclune fillers and cappers, in which the bottles are lilled and 

 capped in the case, but the operations are accomplished by means 

 of hand levers and not automatically. 



