Most factories now unload milk by the use of cranes or some other kind of tipping apparatus. Some of the older factories--there are no very old ones--continue the use of conductors for transferring the milk to the weighing-can. This is the easier but the slower way, and necessitates the use of at least double the number of weighing-cans that are required by the crane. Besides, in the use of conductors, there is the constant inconvenience of standing out in the rain, in wet weather, to hold the conductor, while there is more or less liability to accident from the backing up or starting of the team. Conductors are mean, even impossible, things to clean; and their use, when there is a rush of teams, requires a second man or boy to hold them, while the first does the weighing and makes the necessary entries on the milk-book. If sixty to eighty messes are to be received, at least two weighing cans will be necessary. But by the use of a crane, one weighing-can will do the same work--always provided it has a faucet of not less than three inches in diameter, so that the can may be emptied while a team is driving up and the patron's can is being grappled and elevated ready for tipping. A large faucet is of equal advantage when conductors are used, and, in that case, every patron's can should be furnished with at least a two-inch faucet, to facilitate the transfer of milk to the weighing-can.
The use of the crane is, of course, not entirely free from accident. The strain on the can, when full, is very great, and it is liable to spring aleak, unless well made. But cans made with reference to this use are now furnished with crowning or with patent bottoms, and are so well hooped and braced that no serious accidents of this kind are likely to occur. A can-ear, or a rope long in use, may break. There may be carelessness in hooking on to the can, and the milk may be slopped or spilled by letting a full can turn over too soon, or by too suddenly letting the milk dash into the weighing-can. All these operations require care and experience; but, with proper management, the loss from accident, during a season, will be very slight--perhaps nothing at all.
Great care should be taken in weighing milk, to not only weigh it right, but to make the patron feel that his milk is honestly weighed, and that he is likewise honestly credited on the milk-book. Much suspicion and hard feeling are liable to spring up, if the man who weighs the milk has the appearance of being hasty and careless--especially if he should be ill-natured and disagreeable in his manners. And it may not be out of place here to remark, that good manners and a spirit of accommodation are no more out of place in a cheese-factory than anywhere else. Among a large number of patrons, it would be strange if there were not disagreeable, ill-mannerly men; but a man who retains his self-possession and always acts fairly and talks reasonably, will seldom fail to get along tolerably well and retain the good will of all. It is the right of the patron to know that his milk is correctly weighed and credited, and every reasonable facility should be afforded him to satisfy himself that he is fairly dealt with.