The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-04-25
"DUM MY COW"
(By Associated Prees.)

i-Ihe dummy COW" is perhaps the
most interesting part of the machin-
cry Of the new schools of farming
which are springing up all over rural
England for the purpose OF teaching
The rudiments to young women vol
unteers for work on the land.
OF these schools, one of the largest
is close to London. on the borders of
Epping Forest, which is to the Brit
ish metrpolis what Bronx Park is to
New York. The school is on large
ecclesiastical estate known as
"Copped Hail." where the girls are
b.lletted in towering, lavish build
ingc OF ancient red brick, once the
shelter Of hooded monks and leisure
ly friars.
The school boasts of ten dummy
raids must practice milking. The
dummy consists OF four tripod legs
and an india rubber bag with four
lrcd rubber teats The bag is filled
with water, then the instructor ad-
iusts the flow at either hard"
medium" or easy" and the novice
goes to work
After a weeks practice on the
dummy, two hours a day, the stu
dents are allowed to try their skill
in milking nanny goats. They must
Ispent at least week milking nanny
goats before they are allowed to
touch a real COW. 1t sa great oc-
casion for girl pupil when she IS
Iallowed for the first time to milk a
Cow
I've been promoted. remarked
one student with proud smile.
"This is my first COW. have had
week at milking the dummy In the
COW school over the hill, and an
other week in the goat stables. get
ting my wrists and fingers into trim.
The goats are very nice, but the
dummy cows are not popular. 1t Is
very good practice. but it's very
, mach like practicing on a dummy pi-
, Iano You can't get any sympathy
out of it Some of the girls close
their eyes and try to imagine it is a
rea, cow but it takes lot of imag
ination
The students are supposed to com
plete their course in all-around farm
work in about six weeks. Then they
, are sent out to take places on regu-
lar farms, where they usually work
in groups of five or six.
The superintendent of the Coppeu
Hall school, who has been a prac-
ticai farmer for thirty years, is en-
thusiastic about their work. THE
experiment promises to be much
more successful than ] ever thought
/ it would be" he said The girls
mostly take very well to the life,
(which is healthy and interesting
Best of all, the cows and horses take
to the girl labor quite naturally.
IG,rls are more sympathetic with the
, cows than men or boys. Even our
vicious cows and 'kickers' are mucn
: better behaved than they were in
: tho old days of man labor. When
man is milking kicking COW she
suddenly lashes out, he usually re
talates by kicking back, and this
double show Of temper is bad for the
ieow and worse for the milk. The
lairls don't kick back, because girl
, can't kick with any effect. They try
soothing WOfuS lnstedu' anu ~ -
wonderful what the human voice
Will do with animals"
Most OF the girls thus far recruit
cd are of a little above the average
middle class socially. Some OF them
Inave been aristocrats. young
graduate who was sent TO a farm
J about three miles from the school n
. lshort time ago gave her new en-
( rloyer quite a shock when she ap-
peared with her trim leather suit.
knee boots of Russian leather. and q
serviceable farm hat" worth s25.
Il. A.... Il