19 

 Influence of Visitors During Milking Time. 



The manufacturers of the milking machine are strongly of the opinion 

 that the presence of visitors at the time of milking is very harmful. At 

 one time we thought there was something in this point, and we excluded 

 visitors from the Dairy barn at milking time for a considerable period 

 during the summer. Later observations led us to believe that in the 

 case of our herd, at least, the presence of visitors had little or no effect 

 upon the cows, because our cows are accustomed to visitors nearly every 

 day. 



Mr. H. B. Gurler, an Illinois dairyman, has posted notices in his 

 stable excluding visitors, believing that "the cows will not do their best 

 with strangers in the stable." The Professor of Dairying at one of the 

 American stations where they have milking machines similar to ours, 

 reports on this point as follows: "Of course everyone knows it is not 

 a good thing to have cows unduly excited at milking time, but our cows 

 are certainly accustomed to large numbers of visitors, and it seems to 

 us that' the cowis even milk better when we 'have had a crowd in the 

 barn. If the fault is with large numbers of visitors, why is it that the 

 stripper' is able to get the milk from the cows after the machine?" 



It is possible that cows not accustomed to the presence of strangers 

 while being milked, would become somewhat nervous and give less milk, 

 but where the cows are accustomed to strangers at all times, the effect is 

 probably very slight. It is a point, however, upon which it would be dif- 

 ficult to obtain exact information. 



Durability of the Machines. 



So far as we can see, there is very little in connection with the 

 machines which is likely to get out of repair, with careful handling. The 

 rubber mouth-pieces should be made of material which will stand boiling. 

 We spoiled a number of ours by boiling them. 



Conclusions. 



i. In the comparative tests made of hand and machine milking for 

 short periods, the results were in favor of hand milking in all tests ex- 

 cept one. 



2. When the machine was compared with inexperienced hand milk- 

 ing there was not so much difference between the results got from hand 

 and machine milking, showing that under certain circumstances the ma- 

 chine might be equal to hand milking for at least a short period of time. 



3. The general tendency was for the cows to go dry sooner than they 

 were accustomed to do with hand milking. This was more particularly 

 the case with the older cows. However, this is a point not easily solved 

 as cows vary in this respect, from year to year. 



