14 DAIRYING 



allowed in the cow stable or permitted to take care of cows. He 

 also should neither be allowed to handle nor deliver the milk, as 

 it is one of the best food materials for disease germs. In it they 

 thrive and multiply with alarming rapidity. This makes it neces- 

 sary to use every precaution possible to prevent the spreading 

 of diseases by criminal carelessness in handling milk from an i3- 

 fected localitv. 



THE MILKER'S PREPARATION. 



687. The milker should wash his hands with soap and 

 water just before milking and wipe them dry with a clean 

 towel. His finger nails should be cut close so as not to injure or 

 irritate the cow. No loud talking should be permitted during 

 milking. Go about this work promptly and quietly, with as much 

 regularity in the time of milking as is possible. Some success- 

 ful dairymen milk their cows "by the w r atch" and are very par- 

 ticular about the exact time each cow is milked. They are also 

 careful to have the same cows milked by the same men in the 

 same order. Experience has taught them that regularity in 

 milking aids in developing a tendency to prolong the period of 

 lactation. 



Always milk with dry hands; moistening the hands with 

 milk or water during milking is one of the most filthy practices 

 imaginable. 



MILK THE COW DRY. 



688. A great many milkers are in too much of a hurry to 

 get through milking to milk the cows dry. This loss may amount 

 to one-half a pound of milk from each cow at every milking, as 

 was found to be the case by a farmer who followed his hired 

 man and milked all the cows after him. By this second milking 

 he got over a pound from some cows and less than one-half a 

 pound from others, but from ten cows he got five pounds of 

 strippings at one milking. This to some does not seem to be a 

 very large amount of milk to bother with, but if milking in gen- 



