DAIRY FARMING DAIRYING AGROTECHNY. 275 



DAIRY FARMING— DAIRYING— AGROTECHNY. 



Milking' machine experiments with the B. L. K. cow milker, F. W. Woll 

 and G. C. Humphrey {Wisconsin ,S7rt. Bui. J73, pp. 3-30, p<js. //). — The experl- 

 mouts reported in this bulletin lasttnl 2(1' months, and inehided 40 trials with 29 

 cows milked continuously with the machine for periods of from 4 to G2 weeks. 

 The immediate effect on the milk yield was as follows: 



" The average weekly yield of milk for the 27 trials during the last 2 weeks 

 of hand milking was 17G.8 and 17.3.7 lbs. per cow, a decrease of 3.1 lbs.; during 

 the first '3 weeks of machine milking the corresponding figures were 1Q6.7 lbs., 

 IGO.S lbs. and 159.4 lbs., a decrease of 7.0, 5.9, and 1.4 lbs. for the 3 respective 

 weeks, or on the avei-a,ge, 4..S lbs. Only slight variations occurred in the num- 

 ber of cows gaining or losing in milk during the hand or the machine milking 

 periods. Eleven cows gained and Iti lost in milk from first to second weeks of 

 hand milking, against gaining and 10 losing from second week of hand milking 

 to first week of machine milking, which figures did not change materially during 

 the following 2 weeks." 



When the entire period was considered the machine-milked cows decreased 

 on the average 2.9 lbs. of milk and 0.12 lb. of fat per week. These figures were 

 found to be identical with data previously secured (E. S. R., 15. p. .502) for 

 cows kept under similar conditions as these except that they were milked by 

 Land. 



In comparing machine milking with hand milking for the same cows the 

 average figures obtained for the weekly decrease were " on machine milking, 



1.2 per cent for milk and 1.3 per cent for butter fat, and for hand milking, 



1.3 per cent for milk and 1.2 per cent for fat. These results agree so closely 

 that they may be considered identical for all practical pur])oses. 



" The amount of strippings obtained during the progress of the experiment 

 for the different cows gradually decreased from the first to the tenth week, and 

 after this period the weight of stripi)ings remained practically constant at 1 

 to 3 lbs. per week, or 0.1 to 0.2 lb. per milking, the average weight of strip- 

 pings from different cows when they had become accustomed to machine milking 

 being a little over 2 lbs. per week, or about 2 ozs. per milking." 



During 1 week 10 cows were stripped by the manipulation method after the 

 regular milkers had finished and the results were compared with 10 machine- 

 milked cows. 



" The strippings secured from both lots of cows were practically the same in 

 amount or in percentage of the total milk yield, for the weeks considered, the 

 average amounts of strippings from the 10 machine-milked cows for the week 

 being 21.6 lbs. (1.7 per cent of the total milk yield), and for the 10 hand-milked 

 cows, 21.9 lbs. (1.6 per cent of the total yield)." 



A short trial of machine milking without stripping led to the ojiiuion that the 

 practice is not to be recommended. 



In studying the keeping quality of milk drawn by the two systems there was 

 found to be but little difference, but such difi'erences as wei'e observed were 

 always in favor of the machine-drawn milk. 



" Machine milking had no apjireciable effect upon the physical condition of 

 the cows used, nor did it in any way affect the udder of the majority of the 

 animals. It was apparently responsible for some improvement in the udders 

 of three of the cows and in two cases possibly caused an aggravation of pre- 

 viously noted abnormal conditions. 



" The economy of machine milking is due to a saving in time and in help 

 necessary to milk a large herd. About 5 minutes per cow is saved where 4 cows 

 are milked at once and more time when one man operates three machines milk- 



