Exhibited at Loiicaster. 
855 
this year at Doncaster for the best milking machine, without 
any restrictions as to working for a period after the Show. For 
these prizes only one competitor, Mr. John Gray, of Stranraer, 
Wigton, N.B., appeared, and the machine he showed was not the 
" Murchland," but one invented by Mr. S. Nicholson, a young far- 
mer of Kirkcudbrightshire, and known as "Nicholson and 
Gray's New Patent Milking and Self-registering Machine." 
The machine is an adaptation of the principle of suction by 
creating a vacuum to draw the milk out of the cow's udder. Its 
construction is as follows : — An air-pump, driven by hand or power, 
fixed on a small tank which acts as a vacuum reservoir, is connected 
with a main of | in. dia. gaspipe, laid as most convenient through 
the cow-stalls. At the partition between each stall is a branch 
terminating about 3 feet from the ground, at the end of which 
is a cock, very simply made with a rubber plug. From this point a 
rubber tube is attached to a circular tin vessel of about 18 inches 
diameter and 15 inches deep, answering to the milking-can. This 
vessel has a closed top with one round opening about 4 in. diameter, 
closed by a rubber disc, which, when the vacuum is turned on, is 
securely held in its place by the pressure of the outside air. Through 
this disc are two small metal tubes, to each of which is attached a 
short length of rubber tube ending in a cross piece of metal tube. 
On to each cross is slipped another short length of »u';ber tube, ter- 
minating in the small end of a short piece of cow's horn, at the large 
end of which is a rubber ring, to form an air-tight joint between 
the teat at its base and the horn. 
To set the machine in operation, the pump is worked until about 
fifteen inches of vacuum are formed. The horns are adjusted to the 
teats and the vacuum turned on to the pail by opening the inibber 
cock, and almost instantaneously the milk begins to flow, as can be 
seen by a slip of glass in the side of the pail. Two cows are milked 
at the same time into each pail. The glass in the side of the vessel 
has a scale of gallons marked upon it, so that the quantity yielded ' 
can easily be ascertained. To make sure that the cows are milked 
clean, all the horns but one are removed and the remaining one 
applied to each teat in turn. 
There is certainly gi-eat cleanliness in this method, as no dirt 
can possibly get into the milk, and for cows with sore teats there is 
none of the squeezing or irritating pulling which takes place in 
ordinary milking. As regards cleaning the apparatus, the short 
lengths of tube through which the milk flows are readily cleaned 
by a small circular brush fixed on wire, as was carefully noted by 
us : so that this need not in any way be an obstacle to the use of 
the machine. 
The air-pump when milking one or two cows is easily worked by 
a strong boy ; when four or six are being milked a small engine 
should be used. A two horse-power engine would work any reason- 
able number of machines. The attachment of the "milking-can" 
can be made by any intelligent boy or girl, and the connection with 
the suction tubes can be applied without danger or difficulty. After 
