ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN S ASSOCIATION. 57 



but he was always good with the cows — always kind. His 

 next man was always yelling at the cows, and he always 

 had trouble. He soon had a number of kicking cows. 

 The cows fell off in their milk. These two facts keep in 

 mind : Keep the cows quiet and keep them clean. A cow 

 should never be milked until every thing is brushed off the 

 udder, and there should be no talking. He had had men 

 who would sing a nice little song when they were milking. 

 It was necessary to keep the animals quiet when you milk. 

 It always affects the milk to make a noise. Remember 

 when you milk, that this question came up at the conven- 

 tion. 



McLean : Would like to ask if any of them ever 

 hired a man who could sing. Said he had had cows that 

 could kick a man into the middle of next week, and he had 

 an Irish girl working for him at that time who would sing 

 those old Irish ditties, and could milk the cows he dare not 

 touch. Had a son who belonged to what they called a quar- 

 tette, he believed, and who was getting to be quite a singer. 

 He always sung while milking, and could get more milk 

 from the cows than his father could, every time. His 

 advice was to hire singers for milkers. 



Geo. Sands : Had a fine cow once that would come 

 up regularly every milking time to be milked ; was as gen- 

 tle as a lamb. He built a cow barn and got this cow^ in the 

 first time to milk her, and found, to his sorrow, that she 

 had what was termed back-action. He told his boys that 

 they might experiment with her and see if they could break 

 her of kicking, by force ; but they made a failure of it. 

 This was one of the best cows he ever had. He was in for 

 kind usage. 



Patten : Believed in what they called animal mag- 



