74 ILLINOIS STATE DAIEYMEN's ASSOCIATION. 



state a few facts. Good butter caouot be made from impure milk, conse- 

 quently good pure feed and pure water in abundance must be furnished the 

 cow. It is not wise in summer or winter to permit cows to drink from 

 sloughs or stagnant water, but be furnished water from running streams or 

 from the pump, or to wade in filth and mud to their necks to get to the 

 pasture or through the pasture. Nor is it wise in winter to permit cows to 

 wade about in yards full of water, mud, or manure, or to stand in stables 

 wet or muddy or with broken floors, or in anywise unsightly, or unclean, or 

 offensive to the most delicate smell. 



Odors of all kinds, either animal or vegetable, must be excluded, and 

 cows carrying their afterbirth should not remain in the flock. 



Cleanly Milking: After the feed and water has been attended 

 to, and the stables properly lighted, ventilated and made warm in winter, 

 the next important duty is cleanly milking. Yes, cleanly milking ! I can- 

 not give you the one hundredth part of the uncleanly practices of milkers, 

 being for the most, persons who have no interest in the matter except to 

 dash from cow to cow and get through the job as soon as, possible. 



Yesterday after arriving in this city I visited the inspector of milk at 

 the Condensing Factory, and asked him, shall I, in this convention, describe 

 the dirty practices of milkers ? Yes, Yes, he says, by all means, and when 

 you have told all you can, the one-half is not told. 



Milking, How Done : Forty cows are to be milked; they have 

 come from the pasture, in the spring, into the yards, after wading through 

 deep mud holes in the pasture, and the yard has not been cleaned of manure 

 for a year or more and they still wade into the stables with udders, sides, 

 flanks and bellys in the condition you would say they must be ; four milkers 

 commence; the cows need washing and careful cleaning; do they get it? No ! 

 The first man commences and finds his hands at once full of muck ; he 

 throws it away — what does not go into the pail, and still goes on washing 

 the cows teats with milk, taking care that all does not get safely into the 

 pail. Number two, the next milker, finds his cow not so bad, and he goes 

 on, taking no care to clean his cow of hanging dirt or lumps of manure, 

 and he too, is soon dashing away with thumb and finger, dipping them in 

 the milk every alternate stream, and when he is done with that cow, she is 

 in the condition she should have been in when he commenced. Number 

 three is milking a restless cow, and pail one-half full of milk, she raises her 

 foot, puts it into the pail and forces it to the floor ; the milk is not spilled ; 

 the foot is removed and big lumps of manure skimmed out with dirty 

 fingers ; milking resumed and milk emptied through the strainer in the can 



