NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



281 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MILKING—COW MILKERS, &0. 



BY L. DURAND. 



Mr. Editor : — The keeping of dairycows, milk- 

 ing, &c, is what is known and practiced by far- 

 mers in all countries more or less. In this coun- 

 try I believe that the largest part of milking is 

 done by men and boys, which, perhaps, is as it 

 should be. However, I think that the "girls and 

 women" on the farm should all know how to milk, 

 and some agricultural writers contend, that all the 

 milking should be done by the, females, a matter 

 which 'I do not believe in altogether. As in case 

 of stormy weather, unruly cows, &c, most of the 

 milking should be done by the men (and done, too, 

 without grumbling,) after a day's work. I have 

 been brought up to this business from boyhood, 

 and well remember when first I began to learn 

 that it would be a nice thing to get so as to milk 

 well. But after I had got well learnt and found 

 that I had got to make a business of it, very soon 

 we began to "sing quite a different song." It is 

 my impression now, that throughout England, 

 Scotland and Ireland, most of all the milking is 

 done by females. This, perhaps, comes from cus- 

 tom, but many of the farmers contend that women 

 have more patience than men, with cows, and so 

 of course get more milk. 



My experience in the art of milking has led me 

 to the conclusion that among the great mass_ of 

 milkers only a few are in every respect good milk- 

 ers. It is astonishing to see the difference in the 

 amount of milk which a good milker will obtain 

 from a cow, and a poor and bad milker. When 

 an indifferent milker sits down to a cow, he is so 

 slow and tedious in drawing the milk that the cow 

 gets out of all manner of patience, and before the 

 job is done, very often she kicks over the pail, and 

 milker too, to pay him for his job. Then this slow, 

 tedious milking proves in a short time to lessen the 

 amount of milk, and finally to dry up the cows. 

 A cow should be milked in the shortest possible 

 time that the milker can take to draw the milk 

 from the bag. The milker should not stop to talk, 

 er tell stories with his fellow-milker in the mean 



cause that his "robin bone leg milkers" did not 

 do good service thirty years ago. This is an age 

 of improvement, probably in "cow milkers" as well 

 as in everything else, and improvements never 

 go backward. If the "cow milkers" will draw the 

 milk clean from the cow's bag in half the time or 

 less than can be done by hand, and that without, 

 pain to the cow, they should be adopted at once 

 by all farmers and dairymen who keep over four 

 cows. The time and labor saved by the use of 

 these milkers, to farmers who keep ten, fifteen, 

 twenty or thirty cows, in milking, would be enough 

 to buy an extra cow or pay for the half of an ex- 

 tra hired laborer on the farm. I go in decided- 

 ly for all improvements in agriculture, whether it 

 is in cow milking or corn hoeing. Just test the 

 question by actual experiment and without preju- 

 dice, and then if it proves valuable, adopt it ; if 

 not, then cast it aside. Of all inventions ever yet 

 contrived none is quite equal to the human hand, 

 as is very well known. And yet, as perfect as is 

 this machine, it has been found that hand labor 

 alone is altogether too slow a process to carry on 

 the works of art. So labor-saving machines in all 

 kinds of business have been set to work, which per- 

 form the labor of so many thousands of human 

 hands, all which go to cheapen the necessaries and 

 luxuries of life. Were it not for these improve- 

 ments society could not progress, the improving 

 world would come to a stand still, or go back to 

 the dark ages. 



But to return to "milking;" and that there is a 

 good deal of art in this business, let any "green 

 hand" take hold of the cow's teats and he will find 

 that instead of squeezing out the milk into the 

 pail he squeezes it up into the bag. In fact, it re- 

 quires a good deal of practice to become an expert 

 milker. Another thing is, let every milker pro- 

 vide himself with a good "stool" to set on and then 

 with kind nature and gentle treatment to the cow 

 he may succeed. Yours truly, l. d. 



Derby, Ct., April 21, 1852. 



Indian Corn. — Indian corn contains about sixty 

 per cent, of starch, nearly the same as oats. The 

 time, but should continue to squeeze till the milkl proportion of oil and gum is large, about ten per 

 is all drawn from the bag. My father, who was a cent. ; this explains the fattening properties of in- 

 good milker, always drew all the milk with the dian meal, so well known to practical men. There 



thumb and fore linger. But very few milkers, 

 however, can milk in this way; they more gener- 

 ally press the teats with the whole hand and finish 

 off by stripping with the thumb and finger. In 

 case of young heifers with very short teats they 

 then must be milked in this way by stripping. 



Something like a year ago, I saw for the first 

 time "Knapp's Patent Cow Milkers," advertised 

 as being a great improvement in milking, both in 

 saving time and labor. The idea struck me at the 

 time as being of great value to large dairymen if 

 the "milkers" could be made to answer the pur- 

 pose of drawing the milk from the cow's bag in a 

 short time and getting as much milk as could be 

 got by the hand. But having never seen the 

 "milker" nor never having seen any one who has 

 seen them tried by experiment, I could not say 

 as to their value. However, your friend King, of 

 the Journal, condemns them at once, but wheth 

 er he does so by practical experience or by com 

 mon consent as another "humbug exploded," he 

 d ajs not see fit to inform us. Neither should your 

 correspondent, B. B. French, condemn them be- 



is besides these a good portion of sugar. The ni- 

 trogenious substances are also considerable in 

 quantity, some twelve to sixteen per cent. 



Sweet corn differs from all other varieties, con- 

 taining only about eighteen per cent, of starch. 

 The amount of sugar is, of course, very large, and 

 the nitrogenious substance amounts to the very 

 large proportion of twenty per cent. ; of gum from 

 thirteen to fourteen ; and of oil, to about eleven. 

 This, from the above results, is one of the most 

 nourishing crops known. If it can be made to 

 yield as much per acre as the hardier varieties, it 

 is well worth a trial on a large scale. — Working 

 Farmer. 



How to Cut Asparagus. — In passing through 

 our markets in asparagus time, we find immense 

 displays of that article, which is just about as fit 

 for eating as would be rolls of hedghog quills boiled. 

 Nevertheless it looks beautiful — so white and clear. 

 The writer of this sent a small quantity to market 

 last season, but found great difficulty in disposing 

 of it. The stems were absolutely green ! But 



