LABOE REQUIEEMEIsrTS AND MILKING MACHINES. 



11 



proportionately less time to milk with mechanical milkers, but where 

 hand milking is practiced the time required to milk a cow does not 

 vary appreciably^ with the size of the herd. These facts indicate that 

 the mechanical milker may be used with more efficiency in the larger 

 herds than in the smaller ones. The time required to milk, both by 

 hand and b}^ machine, was figured on the basis of the average time 

 per milking year for each cow in each herd. In the case of machine 

 milking this includes the time necessary to clean and care for the 

 machine. The normal lactation period of a cow is from 9 to 11 

 months. Therefore the actual time required to milk per milking 

 may be slightly higher, varying with the length of the lactation 

 period. 



Table IV.- 



-Timc required per milking, bij machine and by hand, -for herds of 

 different sizes in areas studied. 





Hand milking. 



Machine milking. 



f ize of herd. 



Number 

 of farms. 



Number 

 of milk- 

 ers per 

 herd. 



Minutes 



per 

 imlking 

 per cow. 



Number 

 of cows 



per 

 milker. 



Number 

 of farms. 



Number 

 of oper- 

 ators per 

 herd. 



Minutes 



per 

 milking 

 per cow. 



Number 

 of cows 



per 

 operator. 



15 cows and less 



16 to 30 cows 



28 

 63 

 16 

 6 



1.4 



2.4 

 3.1 

 4.3 



7.3 



6.85 

 6.85 

 7.1 



8.25 

 9.7 

 13.3 

 17.0 



32 

 72 

 41 

 11 



1.1 

 1.5 

 1.9 

 2.4 



4.8 

 4.45 

 4.1 

 3.2 



10.6 

 15 3 





20.5 



51 cows or more 



27.8 



Average 



113 2.3 



6.95 



10.8 



156 



1.6 



4.15 



17.6 



Should most of the milk from the herd be produced during the 

 .spring and summer season when the other farm work requires a 

 maximum of attention, the time saved by the use of the milking 

 machine may be devoted to the raising and harvesting of farm crops, 

 thus eliminating the need for the extra day labor which is often 

 hired for this purpose, 



A compari.sfjn of the columns "Number of cows per milker" under 

 the heading "Hand milking" and "Number of cows per operator" 

 under tlie heading "Milking machine" shows that a man using a 

 mechanical milker is capal)le of milking more cows than he can milk 

 In' hand. This advantage becomes important with the increase in 

 the size of the herd. 



Table V shows that on farms where milking machines are used the 

 average farmer estimates tliat the use of the machine enables 

 hiru to opei'ato his farm with a saving in wages paid to hired labor. 

 This saving is partly due to the elimination of day labor. 



THE COST FACTORS. 



.\s the use of the milking mucliine makes it possible for a man to 

 milk a greater number of cows, and as very often milking is the 



