St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-02
10 SPOIL A COW.
1t Can be Easily Done by Bad
Management, Especially in

uAiiAinSs
The following very sensible article is
from the Australian Times. Neverthe-
less it is worthy of careful reading by
every man who milks cow whether he
be owner or hired hand:
The greatest drawback in dairy work
is the difficulty in obtaining honest.
faithful servants. So far as pecuniary
matters are concerned there is gener-
ally no complaint t. make; but there is
another kind of honesty, which Is very
scarce. The majority Of milkmen are
neither strict nor particular in the per-
Torrance of their work when the mas
ter's eye is not upon them. The master
cannot leave the milking shed In their
sole charge, and he cannot trust the
servants to treat the cows with gentle
ness, and to milk them quickly but
without furry, and at the same time
to do the work thoroughly. Very few,
if any, people can find pleasure in
milking number of cows morning anu
it must be done with the most perfect
regularity and thoroughness. The I'D
der must be emptied to the last drop,
and if this is not done every time, the
supply will fall short every time-that
is, that nature finding that more milk
has been produced than is required, will
abstain from producing so much milk
and devote the food to the production
of fat or of muscle. Almost anybody can
milk cow, but there are few who can
do it properly. IL is an art, and the
man who can practice 1t is worth more
to the dairyman than any other help.
The art of milking is to draw it off
steadily. quickly, .(by. no means hur-
rledly) and completely. Scarcely any
two cows are exactly alike in disposition
and In character or nature of their teats
and udder. Some are hard to milk, and
have very small apertures: some have
tender teatS; some are quite easy to
milk; some cows are phlegmatic, others
are lively aud nervous. Now it is ex-
tremely difficult to find a servant who
will trouble himself to study the lndi-
vidualities Of the various cows, and
try to humor their caprices or
adopt his plans to their peculiari
ties. He wants to get through his
'Job" as quickly and easily as possible.
The eaSy-milking COW is his favorite,
and comes off by far the best, but he
sits down beside the hard mixer with
kind Of grudge against her supposed
failing. He expects some trouble with
the timid one, and this very fact is like
ly to make the trouble appear. The
animals know him and his temper and
moods far better than he knows theirs.
They must be humored and put into
good humor. They may be forced into
submission, but they ought instead to
be coaxed or persuaded into willing
compliance. If they are roughly
out any care for their mood" it
irritates and worries them, the fretting,
the agitation and the worry make them
fall in quantity. and within very short
time the decrease in yield is quite
marked. The worst of 1t is that re-
turn to proper treatment will not re-
store the former condition of things
when the supply has fallen off through
wrong treatment, through the employ
ment of careless servant; it can be re-
stored by entrusting the cows to the
care of even the most careful person.
Under proper feeding and kindly treat
ment the udder of the cow becomes
distended with milk at regular inter-
walls, and when the time comes she
looks forward to be relieved of her bur-
den. If the milkman understands the
cow she looks to him as her friend, and
cause the dlstension of the udder is
painful to certain extent. But when
a cow becomes troublesome, tries to
kick over the pail, won't give down her
milk, and so on, there is cause for 1t,
and the cause will generally be found
outside the cow-she has not been
properly treated and she resents 1t. If
her delivery is slow perhaps the milk
man has been too hurried, and hurt the
teats in trying to force the flow; if
timid, he may have been too hasty or
abrupt. At any rate, it is always safe
to look first for the fault in the man
and not in the cow. Cows do not
like to be kept too long waiting to be
MIXED, and they are even capable of
jealousy if one cow is MIXED out of her
turn to the neglect of another. Regu-
larity in feeding, in milking and in
perfect gentIeness and kindness in
dealing with cows are essential to sue
cess. Any breach of these disiderata
is inevitably marked by falling off
IN the yield and consequent diminua-
ton of profits. In large dairy, where
perhaps fifty or one hundred and fifty
cows are MIXED. it would pay well to
give a salary to foreman of the milk
ers whese sole duty it should be to see
that the cows are properly treated and
carefully MIXED. He would test each
cow and also keep perfect yield of
every milking. The scales alone should
tell whether the milkmen were doing
their duty faithfully,