Milk and Milking. 17 



make-up of the cow. Drawing the milk from a cow 

 seems an operation of such absolute simplicity to the 

 mind of many that nothing can be said about it more 

 than they already know, and yet an ignorant milker 

 is apt to spoil the best cow in a short time. 



Milking is generally done on the right side of the 

 cow. The milker sits on a low stool which in differ- 

 ent localities has one, two, three or four legs, the 

 milk pail pressed and held firmly between his knees, 

 his head inclined against the paunch of the cow. The 

 cow's tail may be secured by some device and pre- 

 vented from striking the milker's head, but unless 

 flies are very bad it should be left loose. The milker's 

 hands should be scrupulously clean. Whether the 

 milker's hands should be wet or dry is an open ques- 

 tion, as both methods are quite extensively practiced. 

 Milking with a dry and dirty hand is, perhaps, a 

 cleanlier operation than milking with a wet and dirty 

 hand. We have the painful conviction that a greater 

 number of cows are milked with dirty hands than 

 with clean hands and it may be, therefore, safer to 

 advocate the use of the dry hand. 

 However, when milk is drawn with 

 intention to manufacture it into in- 

 fants' food, and the necessary precau- 

 tionary measures for cleanliness are 

 strictlv observed, milking with the wet 



Milk Pail and Strainer. 



hand (that is to say, putting a few drops 

 of milk in each hand) may be adopted with consider- 

 able advantage to the animal, because the operation 



