2 BULLETIN 423, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
constituted 90 per cent or more of the total farm business. The 
farms studied in Ohio. Michigan, and Illinois devoted considerable 
time to general farming as well as to dairying. 
FACTS BROUGHT OUT. 
The following is a brief summary of the more important facts 
developed by this study: 
The time saved by the use of the mechanical milker increases with 
increase in the size of the herd. 
With herds of 15 cows or less the average time required to milk a 
cow by hand is a fraction over 7 minutes; by machine a fraction 
under 5 minutes. 
"With herds of over 50 cows it takes slightly under 7 minutes to 
milk a cow by hand and but 4.15 minutes by machine. 
With herds of over 50 cows one man with a machine milks on the 
average about 28 cows per milking as against 17 where the milking 
is done by hand. 
With increase in the size of the herd the cost per cow of hand 
milking changes very little, while the cost per cow of machine milk- 
ing decreases rapidly. 
With herds of 15 cows or less the average cost of milking per cow 
by hand is $10.91 per year as against $10.15 in herds of 50 or more. 
With herds of 15 cows or less the average cost of milking per cow 
by machine is $11.77 per year as against $7.31 for herds of 50 or over. 
Although with the average small herd of 15 cows or less it costs 
more per cow to milk by machine than by hand, it does not follow 
that the machine is necessarily an unprofitable investment on all 
farms on which such small herds are kept. On 32 farms having herds 
of 15 cows or less the use of the mechanical milker was found to 
effect an annual saving in hired labor of $2.63 per cow through the 
dropping of hands who had been kept primarily to do the milking. 
SOURCES OF DATA. 
As is shown in figure 1, the dairy industry is very widely distrib- 
uted over the United States. In its more intensive forms it is. how- 
ever, confined to areas which are in close proximity to large cities. 
The extent of these areas is determined by the city market, the trans- 
portation facilities afforded, and the adaptability of the region to 
dairying. Thus we have, for example, Xew York City, which re- 
quires a large supply of fresh milk for daily consumption. In many 
sections the rough, hilly country of Xew York and Xew England is 
better adapted to the dairy industry than to other types of farming 
(see fig. 2). Transportation facilities have been perfected so as to 
enable the shipping of fresh milk from the extreme northern part 
