CHAPTER XVII, 



MILKING BY MACHINERY. 



After waiting for thirty years for a practical 

 milking machine and reaching the conclusion 

 that we should never ha,ve one, I was agreeably 

 surprised to he informed that cows were being 

 successfully milked by machinery. An investi- 

 gation convinced me that this was a fact and I 

 ordered six machines which were installed Dec. 

 6, 1905, and proved so satisfactory after six 

 months' use that I ordered seven more. 



Operation of the Machine. — The work of the 

 machine was watched with care and intense in- 

 terest, as it meant so much to me if I could get 

 good results from it. One of our first surprises 

 was to learn that the cows that kicked when 

 milked by hand did not kick when milked by 

 the machine. Hand milking hurts a sore teat 

 and the machine does not. Some cows' teats 

 are not sore hut are tender and cause the cows 

 to kick when being milked. These cows take 

 kindly to the machines. Heifers with their first 

 calves accept the machine much more readily 

 than they do hand milking. These points were 

 brought out early in my experience and con- 



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