78 Report of Department of Animal Industry of the 



in the presence of a higher vacuum. As there is no evidence tha.t 

 the higher vacuum contributes anything to the success of the 

 machine milking and as its use is attended with grave dangers it 

 is the part of wisdom to operate the milking machine with as 

 islight a vacuum as is feasible. 



importance of the operator. 



In this and other publications on milking machines emphasis 

 is laid upon the intelligence of the man in immediate charge of 

 the machine as a large factor in its success. Unless he is above 

 the average of farm laborers in mechanical skill and general trust- 

 worthiness the best results are not to be expected. On the other 

 hand it would be erroneous to assume that it is only the excep- 

 tional man who can operate milking machines successfully. Dur- 

 ing the five years covered by this test our bam men have changed 

 frequently so that the actual running of one or both of the two 

 machines has been intrusted to six different men. Two of these 

 men ran a machine for three and four months respectively, two 

 for one year each, one for one and one-half and one for three 

 years, None of these men had had any previous experience with 

 milking machines except what two of them had acquired from the 

 Globe milker, and the prejudice which they received from the 

 failure of this machine fully offset any gain they may have ob- 

 tained from that experience. Taken as a whole they represented 

 very well the better class of farm workmen and they had been 

 selected for reasons entirely aside from their ability to operate 

 machinery. While the degree of their success with the machines 

 varied slightly none of them would be classed as failures and the 

 results given in this publication are those obtained by them with- 

 out any omissions or corrections. 



While these facts make it evident that the successful operation 

 of milking machines is not restricted to persons of unusual ability 

 they should not be understood as showing that the personality of 

 the men is unimportant since all of these were in a sense picked 

 men and they were at all times under the supervision of one of us 



