MILKING AND CAEE OF COWS. 29 



and a half to do our milking, three hours in the day, and I 

 milk Sallie first in the morning, this morning, and milk her 

 last to-night, what is the effect? Why, according to Dabol, 

 — that was the arithmetic I studied, — one milking would be 

 nine hours from the other ; and the next, if I reversed it 

 aofain, would be fifteen hours from the other. You see how 

 easily we can milk hap-hazard, as well as we can do other 

 things hap-hazard, and how easy it is to do the thing right. 

 Again, a cow never should be milked any faster than will be 

 agreeable to her. A cow should never be milked so fast as 

 to give her pain, or make her uneasy. The idea that a cow 

 must be milked very rapidly, is all gammon ; it is all in your 

 eye. I admit you may make more froth on the milk by milk- 

 ing rapidly, but you will not get so much milk. If you milk 

 so fast as to give the cow pain, you will lose in the milk and 

 you will lose in the cream. Milk just so fast as you can 

 milk without giving the cow pain, or making her uneasy ; but 

 when you put your hands to the teats, milk continuously until 

 you get through. 



Another point is important to you dairymen who deliver 

 milk at the cheese factory, for I have observed that you have 

 cheese-factories in this neighborhood. I believe the dairymen 

 in Herkimer County, have become indifferent, careless, in 

 regard to the milk they carry to the factories. I think they 

 reason in this way : — " If a little lump of dirt gets into my 

 milk, you know it all goes in together, and it will be so little 

 • in mine that it won't affect the amount much ; and suppose 

 the milk is a little dirty, won't it bring clean money?" I tell 

 you, gentlemen, this won't do. In our milking operations we 

 must be neat, careful ; absolute cleanliness is the rule we 

 ought to adopt. I have seen men milk when the filth from 

 their hands dripped into the pail. Now the drippings from 

 the filthy hands of a filthy milker, milking a filthy cow, must 

 be pretty near the perfection of filth. (Laughter.) I hold 

 that whoever milks in this way never ought to milk any more 

 milk than he wants to drink himself. Let others milk the 

 rest, so that it may be decent for the customers to whom we 

 offer it, or its products. 



One other point and I will relieve you. The cow should 

 be carded daily, while stabled. This is a point almost univer- 



