LABOR REQUIREMENTS AND MILKING MACHINES. 
11 
proportionately less time to milk with mechanical milkers, but where 
hand milking is practiced the time required to milk a cow does not 
vary appreciably with the size of the herd. These facts indicate that 
the mechanical milker may be used with more efficiency in the larger 
herds than in the smaller ones. The time required to milk, both by 
hand and by machine, was figured on the basis of the average time 
per milking year for each cow in each herd. In the case of machine 
milking this includes the time necessary to clean and care for the 
machine. The normal lactation period of a cow is from 9 to 11 
months. Therefore the actual time required to milk per milking 
may be slightly higher, varying with the length of the lactation 
period. 
Table IV. — Time required per milking, by machine and by hand, for herds of 
different sizes in areas studied. 
Hand milking. 
Machine milking. 
Size of herd. 
Number 
of farms. 
Number 
of mik- 
ers per 
herd. 
Minutes 
per 
milking 
per cow. 
Number 
of cows 
per 
milker. 
Number 
of farms. 
Number 
of oper- 
ators per 
herd. 
Minutes 
per 
milking 
per cow. 
Number 
of cows 
per 
operator. 
15 cows and less 
16 to 30 cows 
28 
63 
16 
6 
1.4 
2.4 
3.1 
4.3 
7.3 
6.85 
6.85 
7.1 
8.25 
9.7 
13.3 
17.0 
32 
72 
41 
11 
1.1 
1.5 
1.9 
2.4 
4.8 
4.45 
4.1 
3.2 
10.6 
15.3 
20.5 
51 cows or more 
27.8 
Average 
113 
2.3 
6.95 
10.8 
156 
1.6 
4.15 
17.6 
Should most of the milk from the herd be produced during the 
spring and summer season when the other farm work requires a 
maximum of attention, the time saved by the use of the milking 
machine may be devoted to the raising and harvesting of farm crops, 
thus eliminating the need for the extra day labor which is often 
hired for this purpose. 
A comparison of the columns "Number of cows per milker" under 
the heading "Hand milking" and "Number of cows per operator" 
under the heading "Milking machine" shows that a man using a 
mechanical milker is capable of milking more cows than he can milk 
by hand. This advantage becomes important with the increase in 
the size of the herd. 
Table V shows that on farms where milking machines are used the 
average farmer estimates that the use of the machine enables 
him to operate his farm with a saving in wages paid to hired labor. 
This saving is partly due to the elimination of day labor. 
THE COST FACTORS. 
As the use of the milking machine makes it possible for a man to 
milk a greater number of cows, and as very often milking is the 
