114 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1909 
A French Model Dairy 
By Jacques Boyer 
MODEL dairy, to the management of 
which the latest discoveries of science are 
applied, is situated on an island of the 
Seine, near Bougival, ten miles from 
Paris. “The dairy is conducted by Dr. 
Chateau on the most approved principles 
of veterinary hygiene. 
The buildings are kept scrupulously clean and neat, and 
are painted blue, because flies avoid that color. No straw 
or other vegetable litter is used, but the floors of the 
stalls are covered with a thin layer of sterilized sand, which 
is changed daily. The sand swept from the stalls is 
washed with water to remove the manure it has absorbed, 
and after it has settled and dried is used again. ‘The 
water is collected in a cistern and employed to irrigate and 
fertilize the meadows. 
Most of the cows are of the Jersey breed, the milk of 
which contains from 7 to 7.5 per cent. of butter fat, while 
that of the best of other breeds contains only 5.2 per cent. 
A few Breton cows are kept for breeding purposes. 
Crossed with Jersey bulls they produce daughters which 
are as good milkers as pure Jerseys and are more robust. 
There are also some Norman cows, but they are employed 
solely as wet-nurses. The calf, however, is not left either 
with its mother or with its nurse, but is put, immediately 
after birth, into one of the wooden “cradles” shown in 
the illustration. One reason for this isolation is that 
young calves are subject to certain contagious diseases, 
of which a single case might infect the entire herd. 
But the most original feature of this model dairy is the 
method of milking by machinery. ‘The construction and 
operation of the milking machine are shown in one of the 
illustrations. Four india-rubber cups which are connected 
with an air pump are attached to the cow’s teats and the 
milk flows through an india-rubber tube to a glass vessel, 
and thence to a copper tank. The operation is similar to 
that of a surgical cupping-glass, pressure being followed by 
suction. In this the inventor has imitated the natural action 
Turbine and dynamo of the model dairy 
The pneumatic milking machine employed at the Chateau model dairy 
of the calf, which alternately sucks and presses the teat with 
its lips and tongue. The hand of the human milker, on the 
contrary, produces only pressure without suction, and the cow 
is fatigued by this unnatural action. The pneumatic milking 
machine causes no distress, and the cows take very kindly 
to it. Before the cups are applied the teats are cleaned with 
2 brush containing a tube through which a stream of warm 
water flows. Eight sets of cups are attached to the apparatus 
and eight cows can be 
milked at the same time. 
The two operations, pres- 
sure and suction, are readily 
distinguished by the ob- 
server, and the milk is seen 
flowing through the glass 
vessel on its way to the 
copper tank, where it ar- 
rives in a state of perfect 
purity, for it has not even 
had an opportunity to ab- 
sorb germs or odors from 
the air. Milk obtained by 
the ordinary method is not 
only contaminated with at- 
mospheric germs and dust 
but often contains particles 
of manure. 
In the neat and com- 
fortable stables the cows 
are arranged according to 
date of calving. The best 
milk is produced in the first 
