MILKING MACHINES 34r 



machines should be shut off till the proper vacuum is secured. 

 And when one of a pair of cows attached to a machine is milked 

 before the other, the vacuum should be shut off from that cow, at 

 the machine, and the machine kept running until the other cow is 

 milked. 



Smaller teat cups must be. fitted on the cows after they have been 

 in use for some time, as the rubber mouthpieces expand and teats 

 grow smaller after freshening of cows. 



Separate stalls for milking by the machine may be placed in the 

 basement of a stable. The cows run loose and are turned into the 

 stalls and are fed grain there as they are milked. When the milking 

 is over the cow passes out of a gate in front of the stall. So no time 

 is lost if one of a pair of cows is milked before the other. A small 

 platform set between each pair of cows affords a base for the milking 

 machine and a seat for the operator in adjusting the teat cups. 



The machine is indicated for farms with a large number of cows 

 (fifty or over) and where labor is expensive and difficult to obtain. 



The Hegelund Method. — Extensive experiments with this method 

 of manipulating the udder at the close of milking have been conducted 

 by Woll at the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Station,* on one 

 hundred and fifty cows during a summer and fall, and have proved its 

 advantages to be as follows : 



A daily gain of one pound of milk, and one-tenth pound of fat 

 per cow was obtained. This is equivalent to a gain of about thirty- 

 five pounds of butter per cow per annum. 



Most cows do not object to the manipulation ; less than a dozen 

 out of the number tested did so. 



The gain in quantity of milk and fat is not a temporary increase ; 

 not only is the gain persistent, but the method tends to maintain a 

 large flow of milk during the lactation period. 



The method taking the place of stripping, there is no loss of time 

 in performing it. 



The use of the method develops the milk-yield of heifers, and has 

 «ven doubled that of cows which have been supposed to have reached 

 their maximum flow of milk. It increases the fat in the milk so that 



* Univ. Wis. Agric. Sta. Bull, No. 96. 



