[Proc. Roy. Soc. A^ictoria, 24 (N.S.), Pt. II., 1911.] 



Art, XXYli- Machine- Drawn versus Hand-Diuwn Milk : 

 An Enqiiivy into the Relative Bacterial Content. 



By NORMAN MacDONALD, B.V.Sc. 



(Government Research Scholar in the University of Melbourne). 



[Read 14th December, 1911.] 



In Australia perhaps even more than most other parts of the 

 world, the provision of some mechanical means whereby the 

 drudgery of milking cows by hand can be at least reduced to a 

 minimum, if not entirely obviated, is by many considered a 

 necessity if the dairying industry is to develop to its full extent. 



Year by year dairymen are finding it more difficult to secure 

 the necessary labour for the milking of cows, chiefly because 

 it is work that permits of few or no holidays, and because it is 

 work that, although not onerous, is very exacting. 



It is many years since the first mechanical appai'atus was 

 devised for milking of cows, but it is only within the past decade 

 that any of these has proved even a comparative success. 

 That such milking machines are growing in favour year by 

 year is evident to anyone who cares to keep in touch with 

 dairying interests, but in the opinion of many the use of such 

 machines is deleterious to the cow's udder, and to the purity 

 of the milk supply. On the other hand it is held by many 

 intelligent farmers who have had experience of the machines 

 that the modern forms of the apparatus more closely simulate 

 the action of the calf's mouth and tongue tha,n does the human 

 hand, and that provided the machine is properly attended to, 

 especially as regards cleanliness, the mammary gland is not 

 aft'ected, and the possibility of bacterial contamination of the 

 milk is greatly minimised. 



In view of these opposing contentions, both of which are 

 to be found supported by very definite statements, and in the 

 absence of comparative records of the two processes being 

 carried out under satisfactory and uniform conditions, it 



