228 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



milk has stopped flowing is not a sure indication that the cow 

 is milked dry. Occasionally the teat will get into such a posi- 

 tion that the milking can not be completed. Before the teat cup? 

 are detached the udder should be gently massaged. If there 

 is any more milk in the udder it will then be extracted. When 

 the operator is satisfied that there is no more milk in the udder 

 the vacuum is shut off with one hand, and with the other hand 

 the teat cups are removed. 



Some recommend that one man attend to the milking machine 

 and another do only the stripping. By this method the man 

 who does the stripping may not get to strip the cow until some- 

 time after the milking machine has done its work. This inter- 

 val of time may cause the cow to take the milk again. It may 

 be the means of drying up the cow, and it may cause diseased 

 udders. 



When the milking of a cow once has started, it should be 

 continued without intermission. For this reason all the cows 

 should be stripped as soon as the teat cups are detached. Some 

 who have been interested in the milking machine have ques- 

 tioned the advisability of stripping after the milkers with a 

 commercial herd. They maintain that the labor required for 

 this purpose is too expensive, considering the small amount of 

 milk obtained, but we know that the last milk drawn from the 

 udder is much richer than the fore milk and the loss of butter 

 fat would be greater than the comparative weights of fore-milk 

 and strippings would indicate. Furthermore, leaving milk in 

 the udder would have a retarding influence on the milk flow, 

 causing the cows to dry up earlier than necessary. Any factor 

 that tends to decrease .production, even though a temporary 

 financial gain results, should not be tolerated, because the con- 

 tinual loss in production would eventually become quite marked 

 and would in time undoubtedly affect the dairy qualities of cows 

 so managed. 



The germ or bacterial content of the milk drawn by machine 

 depends in the main on the care of the milk tubes and teat cups ; 

 these should be rinsed first with cold water, then with a hot 

 solution of sal soda or other cleaning compound and finally with 

 hot water. The rinsing may be accomplished by alternately 

 plunging in and withdrawing the teat cup from a pail of the 

 fluid so that air and fluid are alternately drawn through by the 



