New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 93 
While the average from each set of observations shows a 
distinct gain from handling the pail with the top on at all 
times it will be seen that this gain is largely due to the large 
counts obtained on two occasions when the top was off. This 
is really what is to be expected in a barn where the conditions 
producing dust in the air are fairly well avoided and it is only 
when the unexpected switching of the cow’s tail while passing 
_ or the unintentional brushing against the side of the cow brings 
down its quota of dust and bacteria into the open pail that the 
increase in germ content is marked. However, since exactly 
these things are certain to happen occasionally it would seem 
the better practice, where it is the aim to produce a low germ 
‘content in the milk that the pails be handled as much as possi- 
ble with the tops in place and especially when passing between 
or behind the cows. 
Effect of disconnecting the milking parts——Owing to the 
variation in the sizes of the teats on different cows it is often 
necessary to rearrange the teat cups when changing from one 
cow to another. This is a factor which did not enter into our 
previous tests since it was our practice before placing them in 
the brine after milking to arrange the teat cups in the order 
desired for the test at the succeeding milking. Since this factor 
would enter into the production of milk in a commercial way 
its influence was tested by handling the milking machine under 
most favorable conditions and exactly alike except that at 
certain milkings the teat cups were removed from the teat cup 
connectors and replaced just before the act of milking. 
The effect of this change in the manner of operation is shown 
in Table XIII. 
