OT least among the aids to "more work with less help" is the mechanical milker. Among dairymen the old slavish days of milking twenty-five cows by hand, night and morning, are fast passing away.
       The help problem has greatly hastened the introduction of the milking machine, for hired men as a class are not in love with milking. The dairyman has found that if he has a milking machine it is much easier for him to hire help.
       About the first question a man who is looking for work asks is: "How many cows have you?"
       "Twenty-five," the dairyman answers.
       "Milk by hand?"
       "Oh, yes! It doesn't take long," but by this time the prospective hired man has started down the road. He knows what milking a large number of cows before and after field work each day means.
       Nearly every dairyman who has used a milking machine for six months or more and knows how to handle it properly declares that there is nothing like it; if he had to go back to the old method of milking by hand, he would go out of business at once. With two good machines, one can milk at least 20 cows in half an hour, which means that at least an hour and a half's time is saved. To most farmers an hour and a half is worth a good deal in these times of help scarcity.
       It is such labor-saving appliances as the milking machine that keep our boys on the farm. It is drudgery that sends boys to the city, and to most boys milking cows after coming in from the fields is the worst kind of drudgery.
       The milking machine is one of the forces which are making the farm a better place to live, the farmer's life more pleasant, less slavish.