VARIOUS METHODS OF MILKING COWS 195 



with her feet together, with the result that she is* much 

 better to milk. 



Milking the cows with dry hands is much to be 

 preferred to milking with wet hands, as the latter 

 method is apt to get dirt into the milk pail. 



Milking should be carried out quietly, quickly, and 

 thoroughly. If the whole of the milk is not removed 

 from the udder each milking time, the yield will very soon 

 go down, and the richest milk be left in the udder. 

 In the Hegelund system of milking, most of the milk 

 is removed by hand in the ordinary way ; the milker 

 then commences to massage the udder, so as to force 

 the milk gently into the milk cistern in the udder. 

 After this is done, the remaining part of the milk is 

 removed from the udder. The milk-yield can certainly 

 be increased a little by this method, but it is doubtful 

 if the increased yield will pay for the extra trouble. 



The usual system of milking cows is to commence 

 on the two fore quarters, and when most of the milk 

 is removed from them, to milk the two hind quarters. 

 It is quite natural to commence on the fore quarters, as 

 it is the easiest way, but the tendency of constantly 

 adopting this method of milking is to make the hind 

 quarters larger and more capacious than the fore 

 quarters. 



The explanation is, that shortly after one commences 

 milking, the cow begins to let her milk come ; this 

 gorges the hind quarters and expands them day after 

 day, with the result that this continual internal pressure 

 gradually enlarges the hind quarters. In the fore 

 quarters the milk does not get much chance to enlarge 

 them, as it is being removed all the time the cow is 

 letting it down, hence they do not develop in many 

 cases to the same extent as the hind quarters. The 



