Milking

Milk is obtained from cows through a process called 'milking'. This was originally done by hand, and it was a time-consuming task. It was normally carried out twice a day, in the early morning and again in the late afternoon.

The farmer sat on a milking stool by the side of the cow that he was milking. They generally had three legs to keep it stable on uneven surfaces.

The farmer used both of his hands to draw the milk from the cow by simultaneously pulling on two of its teats. The milk was caught in a milk bucket that was placed on the ground below the udder of the cow. Once all the milk had been drawn from the first two quarters of the udder, he moved onto the other two teats.

Cows might be milked by hand in the field or in the cowshed. Either way, the milk itself then had to be carried to the dairy, which was often attached to the farmhouse. The wooden yoke was an effective way of carrying two heavy buckets of milk without slopping. It rested across the top of the shoulders and then the buckets were attached to the chains at each side.

Once at the dairy the milk was poured into large churns. Some of the milk was used to make butter and cheese, the rest was then brought up to the farm milk stand, where the milk was picked up by the local dairy company.

Doorstep delivery of milk became more common from the later nineteenth century, especially in the larger towns. A large churn was taken around the streets using a horse and cart. The milk was ladled out into jugs or other containers provided by the customer. By the time it was purchased, the milk wasn't always very fresh or clean, and could well be contaminated further by the jug into which it was poured.

A sealed, sterilised bottle which would provide a standard quantity of milk in good condition was the answer to the quality problems associated with doorstep delivery. The first milk bottle was designed in 1884 and had a glass stopper, later to be replaced by first a cardboard and then a metal foil seal. Farm dairies in the middle decades of the twentieth century that ran bottling plants and delivery rounds used bottles decorated with their own distinctive name or logo.

Milking Machines
The labour-saving potential of milking by machine resulted in earnest attempts in the early twentieth century to develop a practical mechanical solution. A key breakthrough was the utilisation of a vacuum pulsator to effectively imitate the sucking action of a calf.

Milking machines made slow headway during the 1920s and 1930s because of the cost, prejudice against them and their liability to break down or develop contamination in the pipework. Thereafter, as their efficiency improved and costs came down, hand milking quickly became a thing of the past, although some smallholders who lacked sufficient funds were still milking by hand as recently as the 1970s.