10 BULLETIlSr 423, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The use of the mechanical milker has little, if any, bearing on the 

 time required to care for the dairy herd other than that of milking. 

 When the total time required to care for and milk a cow is considered, 

 it will be not^d that, with the exception of the herds of 15 cows or 

 less in the New York area, in all cases a cow on those farms on which 

 mechanical milkers are used requires fewer hours of labor per year. 

 This is due to the saving in the time required to milk through the use 

 of the milking machine. 



When a cow is milked by hand more time is required for milking 

 than for the care and feeding of the cow. As the size of the herd is 

 increased this difference becomes greater. On the larger dairy 

 farms using mechanical milkers the time required to milk a cow 

 nearly equals the time required to feed and care for her. This is 

 very similar on the New York farms studied, while on the farms 

 studied in the Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois areas it requires somewhat 

 less time to milk a cow than to care for and feed her. 



THE MILKING MACHINE. 



The milking machine had received considerable attention in Aus- 

 tralia and Xew Zealand prior to its introduction in this country. In 

 1849 the first United States patent for a mechanical milker was is- 

 sued, but the development of the milker did not reach the stage where 

 its efficiency made it an economic factor until within recent years. 



The labor problem of the dairy farm has for a long time been a 

 troublesome one, made so by the large amount of help required to 

 milk as compared to that needed for the other farm work. This con- 

 dition, as well as the fact that excessive hand milking is not only 

 distasteful to many dairymen but also often injurious to halids and 

 wrists, has created a demand for an efficient and economical mechani- 

 cal milker. Various State experiment stations have published bulle- 

 tins treating on the efficiency of certain types of milking machine, 

 but very little information has been made available which will show 

 the relative cost of milking with these outfits as compared to hand 

 milking. 



The factors which determine the cost of hand milking are the time 

 required and the cost of labor. The factors which determine the cost 

 of milking with the mechanical milker are : Time required to operate, 

 wages paid to operators, interest on investment in outfit, repairs, 

 cost of power, and depreciation. 



THE TIME FACTOR. 



Table lY shows that on the farms keeping 15 cows or less it takes 

 7.3 minutes to milk a cow by hand and 4.8 minutes to milk a cow with 

 a mechanical milker. On the farms keeping larger herds it takes 



