400 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



of heifers of his get from my best cows that promise to make fine 

 milkers. 



My barn is 100 feet long, 36 feet wide, with cement floor. 

 Cows face outside wall with 8-foot driveway through center. There 

 is a tongue and grooved floor in the loft, and the ceiling to the 

 cow barn is tar paper, which makes it dust proof. The barn will 

 hold 54 cows, and is equipped with the King system of ventilation. 



The platforms which the cows stand on are of different lengths 

 to accommodate different sized cows. I have been using ground 

 rock phosphate in gutters to absorb the urine. The manure is 

 hauled every day direct to the field and spread. 



We have two "Buff Jersey" stave silos that hold 360 tons, and 

 they keep the silage to my entire satisfaction. We filled them last 

 fall from 28 acres of corn. To say that I am well pleased with the 

 silo, is putting it mildly, as I think them as far ahead of the old 

 way of handling feed as the noonday sun is ahead of the lightning 

 bug. 



We have a galvanized tank in the loft of the barn which holds 

 a thousand gallons of water, and is piped all over the barn and 

 milk room. In cooling our milk and scrubbing barn, which is done 

 daily, and washing milk vessels, we use about two thousand gallons 

 of water per day. 



The cows are fed bran just before milking. They are then 

 groomed, and a chain fastened across the stanchion to prevent them 

 from lying down before they are milked. 



The milking is done by hand by three colored boys, who have 

 suits that are not used for anything but milking. They wash their 

 hands with warm water soap and nail brush just before they start 

 milking. Each one has a bucket of clean water and a rag to wash 

 the cow's udder and a clean towel to dry their hands. 



After washing the udders of five cows they take clean water. 

 The first few streams are discarded, and then the milking is done 

 in the Gurler pail, and as fast as it is milked it is run over a Star 

 cooler and reduced to a temperature of forty degrees within ten 

 minutes after it is milked. It is bottled at once, packed in cedar 

 tubs, iced and shipped to the St. Louis Dairy Co. It arrived there 

 a number of times last fall at a temperature of 38 degrees. We 

 finish milking at 5 o'clock a. m., and the milk arrives in St. Louis 

 two hours and 45 minutes later. The milk contains 5 per cent, 

 butter fat, and I receive 30 cents per gallon for it. About one-half 

 of the milk is sold as "certified milk," and the balance is sold as 

 the "Walker-Gordon" product. 



