MILKIKG AKD MILKIKG APPAEATUS. 211' 



those disturbing conditions of the cow which result from 

 changes in the regular course of management, in any irri- 

 tation, act of fear or fright, worry, pain, anger, and un- 

 usual exercise, atfect the yield of milk and also of cream. 

 JThis decrease of yield is unquestionably due to the effect 

 of these changes upon the nervous system of the cow, and 

 this is very great at times. In the author's dairy the 

 cows have been always apportioned regularly to the dif- 

 ferent milkers, and the variations in the yield of milk 

 have been very slight, except when some changes have 

 occurred to disturb the cow. When an unfamiliar at- 

 tendant fed and handled the cows, or a stranger did the 

 milking, or the feeding was late and the cows — excellent 

 timekeepers — were bawling for their morning meal, and 

 especially when a fresh hand, unaccustomed to the cows 

 and they to him, beat an animal (this should be an 

 unpardonable offence in every dairy) to compel it to 

 obey unusual orders, then there was always more or less 

 falling off in the milk of that day and part of the next. 

 Therefore the dairyman must take this fact into account 

 and avoid every disturbance of the cow in the manner or 

 time of milking as well as in other respects. 



The periods of milking should be at intervals of 

 twelve hours as nearly as may be. This is most conven- 

 ient, as it gives ample time for all those accessory opera- 

 tions which come in between. It has been stated by some 

 rather visionary, and certainly impracticable and inexperi- 

 enced, writers upon dairy subjects, that a larger quantity 

 of milk, and especially of cream, can be procured from 

 cows by making more frequent milkings, at eight or six 

 hour intervals for instance. As the matter of conven- 

 ience is always subject to a question of profit, if this 

 statement were true it would be important. But it is 

 wholly untrue and misleading, being based no doubt, 

 theoretically, upon the fact above mentioned, viz., that 

 the production of milk is excited during the act of milk- 



