The New Student's Reference Work/The Dairy Industry



ON A DAIRY FARM. Here is where a dairy begins. Here we see the dairy cows,  Holsteins and Jerseys, resting in the shade after they have eaten their fill of the pasturage.



Here is a dairy cow with a queer looking machine attached. It is an electric milking machine. You will see the stream of milk flowing into the pail. Milking by hand is tiresome and expensive, and many attempts have been made to invent a milking machine which would prove a success. Nothing entirely satisfactory has thus far been invented and nearly all the milking is still done by hand. It takes an army of 300,000 men and women, working ten hours a day, 365 days in the year, to milk all the cows in America.



Here we see farmers bringing their milk in cans to the receiving station. Here it is received, measured and paid for.



The cans of milk are put into cooling tanks and left uncovered, in order to let the animal heat escape. If it was covered before cooling, it would sour. After it is cooled it is sent to the creamery for Pasteurizing and bottling.



FILTER AND PASTEURIZER. The milk is next carried to a Pasteurizer. First it passes through the filter, which is the upper can on the left of the picture. It then passes to the Pasteurizer, which you see in the center of the picture. It is first warmed by being allowed to run down over the outside of the Pasteurizer, and it is then forced up through the interior, which contains a steam coil, where it is heated to 162° Fahr. This kills the germs and makes it possible to keep the milk sweet for a week. It is then carried through a pipe at the top of the Pasteurizer to the cooler.



Here we see a bacteriologist examining the milk. This is done in most modern dairies, to detect any unhealthy germs.



From the Pasteurizer it is forced by a pump to the cooler, where it is cooled from 162° Fahr. to 42° Fahr. This is done by letting the milk flow over the corrugated surface of this cooler, which is filled with cold water. The upper half of the cooler contains merely cold water, while the lower-half is ice cold brine. This prevents a too sudden change.



From the Pasteurizer the milk is run to the separator, shown in the upper left-hand corner. In this machine, by centrifugal or whirling force, the cream is separated from the milk. The separator is the machine in the center of the picture. Skimmed milk comes out through the spout of the tube at the left and is forced by the pump seen at the left up into a tank in the receiving room. The cream comes out through the spout at the right and is pumped through the pipe at the right to the cream cooler.

The cream cooler we see in the center of the picture. The cream flows on the outside of the cooler in which is ice cold brine. Thence it flows into cans which are carried to the bottling department, or if butter is wanted, to the churning department.

In the upper right-hand corner is a machine for steaming bottles. The bottles are thus thoroughly cleaned and sterilized and are ready for filling. In the lower left-hand corner we see men filling bottles by machinery. In the lower right-hand corner is the packing room. In the background is the bottling machine where men are filling bottles, and in the foreground are boxes filled with bottles, ready for shipment.



Here we see one of the milk depots for children established in New York by Nathan Strauss. Here pure milk in sealed bottles is supplied at a minimum cost. These depots are established at different points and are a great boon to poor people.