260 MANUAL OF FARM ANIMALS 



and ceiling made tight and smooth in order that they may be 

 easily cleaned. The windows and doors should be screened to 

 exclude the flies. 



The utensils, such as the milk-cooler, the pails, cans, strainers, 

 and the like, should be thoroughly cleaned by first soaking in 

 warm water, then washing in boiling water containing some 

 cleaning material, rinsed in clean hot water, and then sterilized 

 with steam. After thoroughly cleaning, they should be inverted 

 in the pure air, preferably in the sunlight. 



Milking. — The milker should be cleanly in his habits, and 

 should milk with dry hands. A small-top milk pail should be 

 used to exclude the dirt as far as possible. As soon as each 

 cow is milked, the milk should be taken directly to the milk- 

 house and there weighed, a record made of the weight, a sample 

 taken to test for the fat, then it should be strained, and im- 

 mediately run over a cooler, reducing its temperature as low as 

 possible (Fig. 82). The milk should then be kept at as low a tem- 

 perature as possible. A good plan is to set the cans in a vat 

 containing ice, and cover the vat with a lid. If this is not con- 

 venient, set the cans in running well or spring water. During 

 transportation cover the cans with a blanket. In summer the 

 blanket should be wet, in winter dry. 



MILKING MACHINES 



Perhaps the most important factor retarding the development 

 of dairying is the difficulty of securing milkers who can be de- 

 pended on to do their work satisfactorily. In general the size 

 of the dairy is restricted to the number of cows that the owner 

 can attend to at such times as his help fails him. If the question 

 of milking the cows, without being so dependent on hired help, 

 could be satisfactorily solved, the number of animals kept on 

 many dairy farms would increase up to the limit of the acreage 

 to feed the animals. Any possibility, therefore, of milking cows 

 by machinery is likely to appeal strongly to the dairy farmer. 



