132 THE CREAMERY PATRON'S HANDBOOK. 



than by loose boards or accidental holes in a window. The walls and ceil- 

 ing of the stable may be purified by a coat of whitewash which can be effect- 

 ually applied with a spray pump ; this ought to be done several times in a 

 year. Some cow stalls are covered with straw or old hay placed on boards 

 with large cracks between them. No amount of whitewash will keep such 

 a ceiling in a sanitary condition. Chaff and loose straw dropping through 

 the cracks are a constant source of dust and dirt during milking; the floor 

 above the cows ought to be as tight as the walls of the stable. 



The gutters and the mangers of the cow stable should be cleaned out 

 daily and plaster or clean bedding spread over the floor. 



Cows should be tied or stalled in a humane way, made contented in 

 every particular and liberally fed. No loud talking should be permitted 

 during milking and anything that will excite the cows must be avoided. 

 Driving them from pasture in a hurry or chasing the cows with dogs will 

 diminish both the quantity and the quality of the milk. 



CLEANING THE Cows. A gentle brushing or carding of the cows every 

 day will be found to be very beneficial to them; if this is not done regu- 

 larly, the flanks and udder of a cow should be brushed just before milking 

 in order to remove all loose hair and dirt that might fall into the pail during 

 milking. The mud which cows have gotten on their legs and udders should 

 be brushed off before milking is begun, and before the pails are brought 

 to the stable so that the dust will not settle on the tinware and thus get 

 into the milk. 



Washing the udder is to be recommended if it is wiped dry before 

 milking begins. The foremilk or the first few streams drawn from the teats 

 may be kept separate from the rest as it contains many bacterial impurities. 

 The difference between the first milk drawn and that obtained after the ducts 

 and passages of the udder are rinsed by milking a short time may be shown 

 by keeping some of both in separate clean bottles and noticing how much 

 more quickly the foremilk sours than that obtained later. 



MILK THE Cows DRY. 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 general was 

 done so carelessly, the total loss of milk in the United States from lazy milking 

 would amount to sixteen million pounds per day, This startling figure 

 is undoubtedly as correct as the statistical reports which give the num- 

 ber of milch cows in the United States as 16,292,360, and it shows that a 

 great saving may be made by milking the cows dry. The last milk or strip- 

 pings is also much richer than the first milk so that it is worth an extra 

 effort to obtain it. Another point which should be considered in milking 



