40 Milk and Its Products 
preciably more milk from a cow, or lot of cows, in 
the course of a season than an unskilful one. The 
milk should be drawn from the cow as rapidly, as 
quietly, and as easily as possible. It goes without 
saying that it should also be completely removed. 
Downward stroking manipulations of the udder are 
of some use in removing the very last portions, but 
the method advocated by Hegelund* for this purpose 
some years ago has not been generally adopted. 
Regularity in the time of milking is also an impor- 
tant factor in securing large amounts, more particu- 
larly in keeping up the milk flow, and preventing 
rapid drying off toward the close of lactation. The 
interval between milkings also affects the amount pro- 
duced. Up to a certain limit the amount of milk 
produced will be increased by shortening the milking 
period, and it is by no means infrequent to milk cows 
three or four times daily, at intervals of eight or six 
hours, and practically all large records of production 
are made under such treatment. When the interval 
is shortened to less than six hours, the disturbance 
to the animal checks the milk flow quite as much as 
the increased frequency of removal tends to increase 
it, and no advantage has as yet been gained by 
milking cows oftener than four times a day. It is 
difficult to make an exact standard with respect to 
the relation between frequency of milking and amount 
of milk secured, but it may be said in general that the 
amount of milk will be increased if the cow is milked 
as often-as her udder becomes moderately distended. 
*Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 213, 
