Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

Instead of the yoke a soft cushion is also used, which the dairymaids strap over their backs, so that they hang down and rest over the hips and thighs. On this cushion the cans are laid, and fastened with broad hempen straps, that they may not press too heavily upon the body. This band is called the milk-strap. Where the milk is carried home on a hand-cart, neatly-woven baskets are fastened upon little wagons in which the cans are placed. If it is to be carried in casks, the same arrangement is fixed upon a hand-cart. Two wooden floats are laid upon the milk in the buckets, in order to protect it from slopping over. One or more large milk-casks or tubs, in which it may cool off properly, are also used. The size of these tubs is different, as well as the materials of which they are made. Where the cooling is not left to the air alone, but is sought to be effected by hanging the milk-tub into cold water, the vessels are made of metal. The large vase-like jars are also used for this purpose. These hold about thirty cans, or twenty-six quarts. Wooden bowls are used, of different sizes and forms, and earthen pans, rather deeper than broad, [Figs. 93] and [94], in which the milk as it cools is set for the cream to rise. A large pot for collecting the cream until there is enough to churn, and wooden skimmers for taking off the cream, are also used. The milker sits upon a common four-legged, and sometimes one-legged milking-stool, and milks either the teats on one side, or one hind and one front teat, the pail being held between the knees. The cows are milked regularly at four or five o’clock in the morning, and at five or six in the afternoon.

Fig. 93.

Fig. 94.

In West Friesland, North and South Holland, Utrecht, and other places, it is customary to tie the tail to the leg of the cow, that she may not annoy the milker. Most cows do not resist this, being accustomed to it from the beginning. They also pass a cord around the horns and tie her to a post stuck in the ground during the milking, as in [Fig. 95]. In many provinces only the unruly cows are tied in this way.

Fig. 95.

The milking takes place on the right side of the cow, so that the milker sits on this side. In West Friesland and North Holland there is an exception to this rule. The cows are tied in pairs in the stalls, and one is milked on one side and the other on the other, the milker sitting with his back to the board partition, to avoid annoyance from either animal.

When the milking is ended the milk is poured through the hair strainer into the bucket, or through a strainer or tunnel in the cans or casks, whichever are used. The milk is taken to the dairy-house, without delay, in some of the ways already mentioned. When the yoke is used, one bucket is hung on the right side and another on the left, each with a float on the top of the milk to keep it from slopping over. The large metallic milk-cans, with wooden stoppers, are borne home on the cushions already described as being held by shoulder-knots strapped round the waist. The mode of transportation depends much on the distance from the dairy-house and the quantity to be carried.