856 Repori of the Judges on the Milkinrj Machine 
a little practice a boy with three of the milking- cans and connecting 
tubes and horns could keep four or six cows milking at one time. 
The machine was tried during the Show week on two cows hired 
from a farmer in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, and was the 
object of much attention from the visitors. One of the cows was a 
decided kicker, but after a day or two got quite accustomed to the 
machine. The otlier was much quieter from the first ; neither had 
ever been tried with a machine before, and neither cow was in 
full milk. We were well pleased with the apparent capabilities of 
the system ; but with strange cows and in the noise and crowd of 
a Showyard we felt the trial was neither fair to ourselves nor to 
the exhibitor, and we therefore asked the Council to give us the 
opportunity of seeing the machine on farms where it had been at 
work for some months, to test its efficiency on a number of cows at 
once, and inquire into its freedom from injury to their udders and 
milking properties. Meanwhile we recommended the machine for 
one of the Society's silver medals, as a meritorious new invention 
of agricultural value. 
The desired permission to inspect the working of the machine on 
the farms where it was regularly in use having been granted by tlie 
Council, we made a tour of certain Scotch dairy farms in the early 
part of October. 
On the evening of Oct. 9 we found the machine applied to the 
standings of thirty cows at the Dunragit Creamery Farm Buildings, 
and saw the machine attached and applied to the milking of four 
cows at once. We saw, too, how easily and rapidly the apparatus 
was cleansed, and how quickly it was laid ready for the next milking, 
by two of the ordinary " milkei's " on the farm. Next morning we 
saw it applied and worked by Mr. Wallace of Auchenbrain on a 
number of his own cows in an easy and natural way. We tested 
them after milking by stripping, and found only the usual quantity 
Avhich comes after the best milker has done. In the afternoon we 
drove from Glasgow to Messrs. Stevensons, Dairy Farmers, Soutli 
Farm, Cathkin, and found the machine in the hands of two brothers, 
both practical and shrewd business men, wanting chiefly to get their 
cows milked efficiently in the least time and at the least cost. 
" They had had a machine at work dui-ing the year, had used it upon 
more than half tiieir cows (90), and had found it very helpful; They 
had not had any bad effects to note upon udder or upon health or in 
the oi'dinary milking capacities of their herd. There were some 
cows, the hard milkers, tliey could not use it on witli advantage, 
nor could they upon those that held their milk." We asked to 
see it at work upon two such cows, and soon saw it was want- 
ing in power to do this. " We have tried this machine," these 
gentlemen seemed to say, "fully and fairly; it does very well so 
far, but it docs not quite meet all our difficult cases. It is, however, 
a great help, and we shall stick to it and hope to sec it improved." 
When questioned as to any injury their cows had taken from its use, 
their answer was emphatically — "None and this was the general 
testimony. 
