THE DAIRY COW 149 



milkers should be milked three times and some very heavy 

 milkers should be milked four times a day. 



Manner of Milking. — A person's hands and the cow's teats 

 should always be kept dry during milking. Some people milk 

 with a wet hand and thus wash off any dirt that may be on the 

 hands or udder into the milk. 



The best way to milk is to take the wdiole teat into the palm 

 of the hand, then close the fist wdth upper or forefinger first. 

 This will force the milk out. After getting all that is available 

 by this means, stripping should be resorted to. This consists 

 simply of stripping the teat with forefinger and thumb. 



The milker should seat himself at the right skle of the cow 

 and should use a stool with three legs. A one-legged stool 

 requires too much of the attention of the milker to keep his 

 Imlance. The two front teats should be milked first and then 

 the two rear ones. 



The cow should alw^ays be milked thoroughly clean. That 

 is, all the milk should be taken that can possibly be had. It 

 has been found by testing that the last milk, or the strippings, 

 are alwa3^s richer in fat than the first milk. Thus, if a cow 

 is not milked dry, the best part of the milk is lost. 



The Milking Machine. — Some years ago milking machines 

 w'ere invented. At first they did not prove very satisfactory. 

 But during recent years the machines have been improved 

 to such an extent that they are more satisfactory than they 

 were previously. Nevertheless, many cow^s do not seem to 

 respond to the mechanical machine as well as they do to milking 

 by hand. The milking machine makes it possible to milk 

 more cows, in a given time but it seems that in order to get the 

 most satisfactory^ results the cows must be selected and bred 

 for machine milking. 



HOW TO GET A GOOD COW 



A good cow can sometimes be bought but as a rule the best 

 cows are bred on the farm. Good cows usually are not for 

 sale and when they are for sale the price is such that the aver- 

 age man could not afford to buy them. Sometimes dairy- 

 men ''sell out" and so dispose of the good cows as well as of 

 poor ones. At other times cows or heifers that will develop 



