6 BULLETIN 423, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Michigan localities dairying is combined with general farming. In 
McHenry County. 111., the dairy is a more important part of the 
farm business than in the Ohio-Michigan area, but it does not 
assume as large a proportion of the total farm business as on the 
farms studied in the New York counties. All of these localities are 
adjacent to large cities, and the bulk of the milk produced is sold to 
local creameries, which, in turn, ship much of it in the form of 
whole milk to the cities. In each of these localities a considerable 
number of the various kinds of mechanical milkers was found. 
LABOR REQUIREMENTS OF DAIRY FARMS. 
Dairying is a type of f arniing which is very dependent upon labor. 
The degree of dependence is governed by the intensity of the dairy 
industry on the farm. The strictly dairy farm, the one receiving 
nearly its entire income from dairy stock and dairy products, if 
operated at full capacity, usually carries as large a dairy herd as 
the farm is capable of supporting. 
Such a dairy farm, as commonly organized in the North Atlantic 
States, often receives from 90 to 95 per cent of its total income from 
dairy products and dairy stock. It is divided into fields and pastures 
which are so proportioned as to enable the farm to support a nearly 
uniform number of dairy animals throughout the year. Under 
such a farming system the labor necessary to grow and harvest the 
crops is not adequate to care for a herd large enough to consume 
them. The number of milking cows kept is one of the important 
factors which determine the labor required on the farm. This is 
due to the fact that on the type of dairy farm referred to here the 
labor required to milk is greater than that required for the other 
farm operations. Milking is conditioned both by time and physical 
limitations. It must be done at regular intervals and requires enough 
milkers to complete it within certain time limits. It is not ordinarily 
possible for one man to milk as mam 7 cattle as he can raise and 
harvest crops for and otherwise take care of. Under an intensive 
system of dairy farming it normally requires three men to milk by 
hand a herd which two men are capable of caring for otherwise. 
Unless there is some other enterprise which will profitably employ 
the extra man's time between milking intervals, there is a loss of 
efficiency of the labor on the farm. It is in the adjustment of this 
labor problem that the milking machine enters as an important 
factor, as a man can milk more cows in a stated time by machine 
than by hand. Two men operating mechanical milking units can do 
the work of three men milking by hand. In Cornell Bulletin No. 
364, " Cost of Producing Milk on 174 Farms in Delaware' County, 
X. Y.," the author states: "After feed, labor was the most important 
