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THE COLLECTION OF LONDON'S MILK SUPPLY.

20th March 1919, Page 12
20th March 1919
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 12, 20th March 1919 — THE COLLECTION OF LONDON'S MILK SUPPLY.
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Keywords : Dairy Farming, Milk, Dairy

Motor Lorries Play a Prominent Part in the Fostering of Milk Production in Wilts and Gloucestershire.

HOW MANY OF the millions of Londoners who have fresh milk in their tea or coffee for breakfast in the morning, have anything like an adequate idea of the really complex organization that is necessary to effect the collection, transport and distribution of this very necessary commodity ? The governing factor in the whole of the milk industry is that milk is perishable; hence tile necessity for getting it from the cow to the consumer with the least possible delay. Within a radius of over NO miles from London, almost the whole of the 'dairy produce finds its way to the Metropolitan area, although in this connection it is well to remember that, due to the varying dietary value of meadow grass at different seasons of the year, the normal yield of milk from each cow is not a constant quantity throughout the twelve months. That means that, while London's demand for milk remains more or less constant, there are at certain seasons of the year (notably early summer) large quantities of surplus milk, which have to be transformed from a perishable state to a more or less imperishable one.

It is this circumstance that has led to the establishment in various parts of the country of large dairy plants, of which the function is really two-fold. In the first place, these dairies are equipped with refrigerating machinery for cooling the milk in the interval between its collection from the farms and its shipment on the train for London. This cooling is absolutely necessary, otherwise the milk would arrive in London in a condition unfit for human consumption. Then, in the second place, the dairies are equipped with the necessary plant for converting the surplus milk for which there is no London demand, into either cheese or milk-powder ; the object being to keep the milk in a form that will permit of its being conserved. In the days before the development of mechanical transport, it was usual for each farmer who owned cows to collect his milk once or twice a day and send it, in two or three churns, to the nearest railway station ; for this purpose a light cart or trap was necessary, and every farm had its own vehicle of this description. As an illustration of how the commercial

motor is able to effect a tremendous improvement in the system of collecting milk, the Dairy_ Supply Co.'s establishment at Wootton Bassett, Wilts., affords a most striking example. Situated close to a main-line railway station, the dairy is furnished with all the necessary plant of the kind to which reference has been made above, and in order to ensure an adequate supply of milk and a. regular collection of it from the farms, this progressive company has availed itself to the full of the opportunities presented by motor vehicles. Its local Sleet consists of two 5-ton Forlens, with trailers ; three 30-cwt. Trafford and a 50-cwt. Austin petrol lorries. These , vehicles collect milk from farms scattered over a very wide areain northern Wilts and the adjacent portion of Gloucestershire, and the general principle adopted by the running department is that heavy steam vehicles shall perform their work on We main roads, while the smaller petrol lorries operate on the very narrow lanes, often not more than 10 ft. wide, which are abundant in this part of the country.

With the object of observing the performance of one of these vehicles on a typical day's work, we journeyed to Wootton Bassett recently and boarded the Austin lorry at half-past seven in the morning. Overnight this vehicle had been loaded with 39 empty churns., each of 14 gallons capacity. The crew consisted of the driver and one loader, and the lorry ran .straightaway a distance of about 10 miles to the vil lage of Ashton Keynes, before stepping to exchange the empty churns for full ones. On the way we noticed at intervals along the road, sometimes one or two, sometimes five or six, churns standing at the roadside ; these it seemed would. be picked up by another lorry, operating on a rather different route-; or, in the case of these very near to Wootton Bassett, by horse-drawn vehicles, Everyone in this part of the country seemed to take the presence of the milk churns as a matter of course, and apparently no one thought it worth while to. take advantage of their unguarded condition. In some cases farmers had thought it an advantage to erect small platforms of timber, so that the churns should be on the level of the lorry body, thereby facilitating loading. An ex,, ample of this is shown in one of the accompanying illusfrations, and these platforms were quite common at intervals along the road. The Austin went from farm to farm in Ashton. Keynes, Soraerford Keynes and the neighbouring villages and hamlets ; in very few of the farms, however, was any evidence to be seen at all of the inhabitants, the lorry men picking up the full churns and leaving the same number of empty ones without any assistance or supervision. The system certainly worked very smoothly and, after an hour or so, there were 39 churns, more or less full, in the place of the 39 empty ones. Some of the churns contained only three or four gallons, but most of them were full, or nearly so. Care is taken not to exceed the loading capacity of the lorry.

At the last farm where we picked up churns, was a narrow stream running swiftly, swollen as a result of the recent rains. A "land army !) girl and one or two rustics alike were unable to acquaint us with the name of this stream, 'which, at that point, was about 15 ft. wide. Eventually a local postman was able to. inform us that it was none other than the Thames, of which, indeed, the source was from there only a few miles distant.

By II o'clock we were back at the dairy again, where no time was lost in unloading the full churnsand passing the milk, over the refrigerator ; that same milk would be on a thousand breakfast tables in London within 24 hours. Shortly after 12 o'clock, and, apparently, without waiting for any mitt-clay meal, the driver started Up again and ran the Austin out of the dairy yard, this time taking the direction of Minety. Again with 39 empty churns on board, six or seven miles were covered befere the first transaction began, the salient features of this run in no wise differing from those that we had experienced in the morning. The Austin pulled excellently and gave not the slightest trouble during the whole of its work ; we noticed that at every stop, often when only one or two clipns had to be exchanged, the driver careful to shut off his engine, thereby economizing petrol. As will be seen from the accompanying illustrations, the roads almost everywhere were nar row and in bad condition ; nevertheless the service, which has been in operation for three or four years, appears to us, after careful observation of a typical "one day's ,w-ork," to operate very well and to give full satisfaction to everyone concerned.

Tags

People: Ashton Keynes
Locations: Austin, London

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