No. 4.] UNITED STATES DAIRYING. 147 



butter ready for market. Our eastern dairytnen must do 

 better than these Empire State leaders, or else do business 

 at a loss. 



The daily care of cattle and especially the operation of 

 milking furnish further fields for the exercise of economy 

 in management. Proof is abundant of the direct profit of a 

 kind, quiet, clean and considerate care-taker and milker ; 

 the cow responds generously to the person in whom she 

 thoroughly confides, by increase in both quantity and quality 

 of milk. A careless, rough, rude handler and milker, or one 

 uncleanly in person or habits, is dear at any price. Most of 

 the taints and early changes in milk and injury to quality of 

 its products can be directly traced to carelessness in the sur- 

 roundings and condition of the cow or her milker at the time 

 of milking. I have lately been at once astonished and dis- 

 gusted at witnessino; the milking of large herds of cows in 

 some parts of this country by foreign milkers who practice 

 the wet method, — frequently dipping their fingers in the 

 milk pail. This impressed me more than ever with the 

 urgent need of a cleanly, efficient and economical substitute 

 for hand milking. The much-desired invention seems to be 

 nearer than ever before. Some hundreds of cows in this 

 country are now regularly milked by machinery, and have 

 been for months, with apparent satisfaction to the cows and 

 their owners. It looks as if the successful mechanical cow 

 milker was at last in sight. 



In the care and manipulation of milk and cream there is 

 no excuse for the losses which have prevailed in the past, 

 and been mainly unknown. Our modern methods of pre- 

 venting deterioration, of determining and regulating acidity 

 and ripeness, and of applying tests to discover losses in 

 creaming and churning, are too familiar to call for further 

 remark. We should recollect, however, that for most of 

 these aids to economy we have to thank the very practical 

 work of our scientific friends at the experiment stations and 

 the dairy schools. 



There is great need for a better utilization of the skim- 

 milk and buttermilk of creameries and private dairies. The 

 profits of modern manufacturers often depend upon skill and 

 economy in disposing of the waste products. Dairymen may 



