9 



were slightly lower in the second period, during which period the cows 

 usually milked with the machine were milked by hand. The seven cows 

 regularly milked with the machine gave 75! pounds more milk during 

 the period when milked by hand as compared with, the average of the 

 two periods when milked with the machine. Five of the cows gave more 

 milk by hand milking and two gave less, although the increase on the 

 group of seven cows was about j\ gallons of milk in the two weeks when 

 milked by hand as compared with the average of two weeks milked with 

 the machine. 



About the middle of October, 1906, we wrote the manufacturers of 

 the milking machine, saying we were not satisfied with the results we 

 were getting, and requested that they send one of their experts to operate 

 the machines to see if improvements could be made. He came and stayed 

 a week with us. His main suggestion was to "manipulate the udder" 

 more than we had been doing. To follow his plan means that a man 

 could not look after more than one or two machines, and would not be 

 able to milk more than two to four cows at once. As a result of his work 

 the cows appeared to milk out cleaner than they had been doing, i.e., 

 there was less "stoppings" from them than usual, but the question arose 

 whether this was due to "cleaner milking" or to a condition which pre- 

 vented the hand milker obtaining the "strippings. " In order to test 

 this point so far as possible and also to compare ordinary and expert 

 running of machines, also ordinary and expert hand milking, a series of 

 tests were made, beginning October 16th. The chief points in the ex- 

 periments with ten cows are shown in the table, Machine vs. Hand Milk- 

 ing for Short Periods. These tests were made chiefly to see whether 

 "manipuation" enabled the milker to get all of the milk or prevented 

 strippings being got afterwards by hand. Also a comparison of expert 

 and experienced milkers : — 



On October 16th the ten cows were milked by the machines operated 

 by our regular men. Next day, October 17th, half of the cows were milked 

 by an expert hand milker and the other half by a milker who had had 

 little experience milking cows. All the cows milked by the expert hand 

 milker increased from 3 to 7 pounds milk per cow, or a total of 23 pounds 

 milk in one day from the five cows. The other five cows milked by an 

 inexperienced person gave practically the same quantity of milk by hand 

 as with the machine on the previous day. Two of the cows gained a 

 pound each, but this is no more than may occur any day. 



On October 18th these ten cows were milked with the machines 

 operated by the expert. Most of them were down in their milk as com- 

 pared with the previous day when milked by hand. The totals for the 

 ten cows were 248 pounds by hand and 226 pounds by expert machine 

 milking. The totals on the 16th from our regular men operating the 

 machines was 223 pounds. It would seem as if the expert operator got 

 more milk (3 pounds) than did our regular men, but the quantity of milk 

 was less than was obtained by hand milking. 



