The Murchland Milking Machine. 
G51 
irries the contents of the mouth into the gullet, at the same time 
reaking up the vacuum and stopping the flow of milk. Thus, while 
1 the case of the natural method of extracting the milk the vacuum 
; suspended every time the animal swallows, with Mr. Murch- 
md's machine the action of the vacuum is maintained all through 
he operation, and from 8 to 10 minutes serve with the majority 
•f the animals to empty the udder of its contents. The sucking-calf 
mils but little at the teat, so that on the whole the apparatus 
lere described approaches closely to Nature in the way the latter 
Provides for the young animal to abstract milk from its dam. 
At the outset of the trials of the apparatus, in February, when 
salving was beginning, Mr. Murchland operated on the cows just as 
hey came to hand. It soon became evident that the machine was 
jtfective for the purpose for which it had been introduced, and notes 
jegan to be taken of the milk yielded by the different animals under 
ireatment. The cows continued to improve in their yield — at least, 
none fell off in this respect ; but there were no means of instituting 
a comparison between machine-milked and hand-milked animals. 
It was, therefore, arranged that out of the next twelve cows which 
were to calve, six were to be milked entirely by means of the 
machine, and six by hand, a register being kept of the yield of each 
animal morning and evening. After a while, however, some mis- 
chances happened to one or two of the selected six that were hand- 
milked, and the results of the machine-milked six came to be pitted 
against the returns of the full herd, a register of the yield of each 
animal having now been begun. For a period of three weeks, 
18 cows which were hand-milked gave an average daily yield of 
24£ lb. each ; and the six which were machine-milked, an average 
of 2il lb. And, during another period lasting two weeks, the 18 
gave a daily average of 242 lb. and the six an average of 21 j lb. 
From this date forward a good deal of cross-working took place, in 
the way of hand-milking the animals which had been machine- 
milked, and vice versa, thus breaking up the continuity of compari- 
son. By-and-by some little friction made itself apparent between 
the machine-operators and the girls in charge of the cows, and again 
Mr. Murchland confined his attention to the original six animals. 
But now he set himself to discover the l ight degree of vacuum his 
machine ought to be worked at, and what sort of teat-cup it would 
be best to adopt ; and this work likewise put aside the possibility 
of comparison between the differently treated animals. The vacuum 
used at first, equivalent to a pressure of eleven inches of mercury, 
would appear to be the most suitable. 
Mr. Murchland now inclines to use a teat-cup so formed as to 
surround the teat with milk, in this way following up Nature 
again, and so preventing the possibility of injury to the teat by 
bringing it in contact with a metal surface as originally done. This 
he accomplishes by inserting a diaphragm within the teat-cup, the 
lower part of which is of tin and perforated, and the upper part, 
which grips the root or neck of the teat, being made of indiarubber 
(see fig. 5), or the diaphragm may be wholly of rubber. The 
v v 2 
