LABOR REQUIREMENTS AND MILKING MACHINES. 5 
In order to determine the effect of the milking machine upon the 
organization and economic management of the dairy farm in gen- 
eral, it was necessary to secure data from farms of both these types 
as well as from farms representative of both the hand and the 
mechanical method of milking. Further, it was necessary not only 
to select areas which exemplified dairying under different conditions, 
but also those in which a comparatively large number of mechanical 
milkers was in operation. The data were obtained from 109 New 
York dairy farms as representative of the intensive type and from 
160 farms in the Central States as representative of the mixed type 
of farming. These studies were made by interviewing the dairyman 
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Fig. 3. — Typical topography of the dairy farm of the Middle West, where conditions 
are more favorable to crop production than on the Eastern dairy farm. 
in every case and learning his experience with milking machines. 
The studies covered a period of several months during the summer 
and autumn of 1915, and the data secured are representative of con- 
ditions existing on these farms during the entire year. The dairy- 
men interviewed had used the milking machine for periods varying 
from one to six years. 
AREAS STUDIED. 
The areas chosen for this study are located in Delaware, Chenango, 
and Chautauqua Counties, N. Y. ; Lenawee County, Mich.; Fulton 
County, Ohio ; and McHenry County, 111. Dairying in a very inten- 
sive form is practiced in the New York areas. In the Ohio and 
