MILKING BY HAND. 121 



elude him from the competition. I am now 

 pleased to be able to say that nothing of the 

 kind was discovered. 



One milker who milked twelve cows had a 

 variation of seven pounds from highest to low- 

 est daily weight of milk during a week. An- 

 other milker who had fourteen cows to milk had 

 as low a variation as seven and one-half pounds 

 in the daily milk of his cows in a week. My to-' 

 tal milk, which reached 1,850 pounds daily, 

 varied less than some of the patrons v"^:o had 

 250 to 300 pounds daily. This was the result 

 of careful systematic work, and work that pays. 



The young man who won the first prize had a 

 shrinkage of 1.85 pounds per cow in three 

 months. The winner of the second prize made 

 a shrinkage of two pounds per cow, and the 

 third prize winner made a shrinkage of 2.6 

 pounds per cow for the three months. This work 

 when compared with the work of the previous 

 winter for the same months and under the 

 same conditions as nearly as possible is interest- 

 ing to say the least. Some of the work of the 

 previous winters was alarming, though it was 

 doubtless as good as the average milker. I 

 have the record of one milker for three months 

 in 1892 and 1893, also in 1893 and 1894. In the 

 first winter the percentage of shrinkage for the 

 three months was 27%, and the following winter 

 when competing for a prize his shrinkage was 



