DAIRY METHODS 13! 



promise in the milk product. They are hardly practical, how- 

 ever, at the present time upon the small farm, because of their 

 expense. But in a dairy where there is a herd of fifty or more 

 cows they become very economical because of the ease with 

 which a single man can milk a number of cows at once by means 

 of them. 



One serious objection has been raised against the use of these 

 machines that has in some places caused their abandonment. 

 There is no way yet devised by which the milker can see the 

 milk as it passes into the collecting can. If he chances to milk 

 a cow that has experienced some accident so as to produce 

 bloody milk the milker will not discover it until he opens the 

 can into which he has perhaps already drawn the milk of several 

 cows. The result will be the spoiling of the whole milk in the 

 can which would have been avoided if he had been able to 

 detect the bloody milk at the time of the milking. 



Rejecting of Fore-milk. For reasons already indicated the 

 first milk drawn at each milking will contain more bacteria than 

 the rest, inasmuch as it washes out the bacteria at the mouth 

 of the milk ducts. It has become a practice in the better dairies 

 to reject the fore-milk, either allowing it to waste upon the 

 floor or collecting it in a separate dish. There is no doubt an 

 advantage in this, but the extent of the advantage has been 

 overdrawn. The extra number of bacteria obtained in a pail 

 of milk from the entrance of the fore-milk is very small in pro- 

 portion to the larger number that enter the milk from other 

 sources, and while the rejection of the fore milk is to be recom- 

 mended its value is not so great as is sometimes supposed. Its 

 value is shown by the accompanying diagram. 



Stripping. The practice of milking the cows thoroughly dry 

 at each milking also tends to increase the purity of the next 

 milk drawn. If a considerable quantity of milk is left in the 

 udder, it has a tendency to hasten the development of the 

 bacteria in the udder so that the next milk that is drawn con- 



