14 BULLETIN 29, PORTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
being flushed, they should be aired to dry out quickly. The milk 
room should be frequently whitewashed and kept free from cobwebs 
and dirt. It should be well lighted and the windows screened to 
keep out the flies. The utensils used in the milk rooms should be 
kept scrupulously clean, and if hot water is not available they 
should be placed in the sun daily for a few hours. All sour milk 
should be removed from the milk room, which should be used 
exclusively for cooling and storing, straining, mixing, and aerating 
milk. 
Lime is an excellent disinfectant for spreading over the surface 
of the earth floorings. Tamped earth, like clay, makes better floor- 
ing than do either sand or gravel and it can be kept cleaner. Air and 
sun, the two great natural disinfectants, should be admitted to the 
stable and milk room at all times, unless, of course, they interfere 
with the general comfort of the animals. 
The cattle should be kept in the open as much as possible, but 
within eas}^ access to shade. Animals imported from the North 
should be kept in a shed for some months at least, being allowed in 
the open only in the early morning, late afternoon, and at night. 
When in the pasture they should be protected from ticks. 
MILKING. 
Milking should be done in the milking shed where sanitary con- 
ditions can be maintained. Before attempting to milk, the milker 
should carefully wash his hands with soap and water and rinse them 
in clean water. Cows should be thoroughly cleaned some time before 
milking, the skin and hair, particularly the udder, being thor- 
oughly groomed and brushed to remove manure and other filth. 
The cows should not be brushed in the milking shed, or at least not 
immediately before milking, because the resulting dust will settle in 
the milk. If the animals are tied in the stall and given 1 pound 
of concentrated feed at milking time, they will let down the milk 
readily and without undue excitement. 
In all up-to-date dairies the calf is weaned soon after its birth 
and the cow is trained to deliver the milk without it. The calf can 
be taught to drink milk from a pail by letting it suck the forefinger 
immersed in the milk. The finger should be withdrawn gradually 
so that the calf will draw the milk into its mouth in the natural 
manner of drinking. Some milkers are more efficient than others 
in obtaining a large quantity of milk at each milking. The milker 
should be trained to " strip " the cow, that is, to remove the milk 
more completely from the udder. Stripping, in addition to con- 
siderably reducing likelihood of bacterial infection of the udder, 
promotes and maintains the milk yield, resulting in a flow of milk 
