6 BULLETIN 423, U. S. DlSyARTMEpSTT OF AGRICULTTJEE. 



Michigan localities dairying is combined with general farming. In 

 McHenry County, IlL, the dairy is a more important part of the 

 farm business than in the Ohio-Michigan area, but it does not 

 assume as large a proportion of the total farm business as on the 

 farms studied in the New York counties. All of these localities are 

 adjacent to large cities, and the bulk of the milk produced is sold to 

 local creameries, which, in turn, ship much of it in the form of 

 whole milk to the cities. In each of these localities a considerable 

 number of the various kinds of mechanical milkers was found. 



LABOR REQUIREMENTS OF DAIRY FARMS. 



Dairjdng is a type of farming which is very dependent upon labor. 

 The degree of dependence is governed by the intensity of the dairy 

 industry on the farm. The strictly dairy farm, the one receiving 

 nearly its entire income from dairy stock and dairy products, if 

 operated at full capacity, usually carries as large a dairy herd as 

 the farm is capable of supporting. 



Such a dairy farm, as commonly organized in the North Atlantic 

 States, often receives from 90 to 95 per cent of its total income from 

 dairy products and dairy stock. It is divided into fields and pastures 

 which are so proportioned as to enable the farm to support a nearly 

 uniform number of dairy animals throughout the year. Under 

 such a farming system the labor necessary to grow and harvest the 

 crops is not adequate to care for a herd large enough to consume 

 them. The number of milking cows kept . is one of the important 

 factors which determine the labor required on the farm. This is 

 due to the fact that on the type of dairy farm referred to here the 

 labor required to milk is greater than that required for the other 

 farm operations. Milking is conditioned both by time and physical 

 limitations. It must be done at regular intervals and requires enough 

 milkers to complete it within certain time limits. It is not ordinarily 

 possible for one man to milk as many cattle as he can raise and 

 harvest crops for and otherwise take care of. Under an intensive 

 system of dairy farming it normally requires three men to milk by 

 hand a herd which two men are capable of caring for otherwise. 

 Unless there is some other enterprise which will profitably employ 

 the extra man's time between milking intervals, there is a loss of 

 efficiency of the labor on the farm. It is in the adjustment of this 

 labor problem that the milking machine enters as an important 

 factor, as a man can milk more cows in a stated time by machine 

 than by hand. Two men operating mechanical milking units can do 

 the work of three men milking by hand. In Cornell Bulletin No. 

 364, " Cost of Producing Milk on 174 Farms in Delaware County, 

 N. Y.," the author states : "After feed, labor was the most important 



