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The Model Dairy, Durban m 



FIRST IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



ON Thursday, 2nd of May, the Model 

 Dairj% Durban, was opened. The 

 site of the Dairy, being in West Street, 

 opposite to the palatial store of Messrs. 

 Harvey, Greenacre & Co., is excellent, and 

 there can be little doubt that all the 

 Durban townspeople in a very short time 

 will know where to order supplies of the 

 best Colonial milk, butter, and eggs. 



The Dairy has been fitted throughout 

 on the latest principles of the Model 

 Dairies of England. It is not only 

 the first in Natal, but the tirst in South 

 Africa. The front part of the building 

 is the shop at which retail trade will 

 be done, and where orders for regular 

 supplies will be taken. The shop, ex- 

 cellently lighted by large windows, is 

 roomy, and provided with small marble 

 tables. Here fresh, rich, country milk 

 will be served by the glass ; other re- 

 freshments, of the character supplied in 

 the Home Model Dairies, will also he 

 procurable. Qn the day of opening there 

 was on sale the following : — Milk, butter, 

 eggs, " Coulommier," or new-milk cheese, 

 Gervais, or Continental crt am cheese, ice 

 creams, milk-shake, egg-and-milk, and 

 shortly will be added cream, junket, 

 Devonshire cream, etc. The milk for 

 the present is being sold at 4d. per 

 pint, and the butter at 2s. fid. per lb. 

 The floor is tded, and the walls and 

 ceiling are covered with ornamental 

 steel plating, flat painted in cool 

 tints. Palms and ferns, dispersed through 

 the shop, add still further to the general 

 cool and artistic effect. The counter is 

 of marble, and the base of polished teak. 

 On the counter are three large " show 

 refrigerators." These refrigerators, except 

 at the corners, are wholly constructed of 

 plate-glass, and are intended for 

 showing off butter, etc., to good 

 effect. A block of ice in the top comijiirt- 

 ment keeps the contents cool, almost to 

 freezing. Behind the shop is the in- 

 sulated storage. The system of chilling 

 is the " direct expansion," which was 

 fully explained in the article on 

 the Transvaal Cold Storage at Cato's 

 Creek. The motive power is a 5-h.p. 



oil engine. Here also is the chamber 

 where the ice required for the business 

 is manufactured, and close by is a room 

 with hot and cold water laid on, and fitted 

 with racks, etc., where the cans are 

 washed. Milk will be sent to all parts of 

 the town in insulated cans, the delivery 

 being done by light vans and milk peram- 

 bulators. The delivery vans are fitted 

 with insulated boxes with compartments 

 for ice, and the butter will be sent in 

 these boxes, thus reaching the customers 

 in prime condition in the warmest weather. 



The delivery cans were specially con- 

 struoted for the Company from designs 

 supplied by the Nel's Rust Dairy, which 

 first introduced this pattern of can. Mr. 

 N. Harper, of Malvern, planned and im- 

 ported all the machineiy, and superin- 

 tended the erection of the machinery, in- 

 sulated chambers, etc. 



The advance in the system of deliver- 

 ing fresh milk being inaugurated by the 

 Model Dairy Company is remarkable. 

 Until now townspeople, for the most part, 

 have had to be content with milk of 

 whatever good or bad origin, carried in 

 bottles, slung round the body of a kafir, 

 and f'lUy exposed to the rays of our 

 sub-tropical sun. The cleanliness of 

 the bottles was often questionable, and 

 that the broken corks were the homes 

 of thousands of germs was certain. From 

 this stage the jump is a big one to that of 

 the Model Dairy Company. The Com- 

 pany will deal only in genuine Colonial 

 milk which has been pasteurised, and will 

 handle it until the moment for deliver- 

 ing on the most modern and approved 

 scientific principles. 



The fact, with regard to the estab- 

 lishment of the Durban Model Dairy, 

 deserves placing on record here, that 

 the conception of the idea and the 

 elaborate carrying of that idea into 

 effect, as described, is due to the enterprise 

 of Mr. J. Baynes, M.L.A., the owner of 

 the Nel's Rust Dairy, the first of the 

 creamery class of dairies started in Natal. 

 The general superintendence of the 

 arrangements was in the hands of Mr. 

 Geo. D. Alexander. All assistance pos- 



