The milking machine has a unique place in the mechanization of dairy farming. It is, as yet, the only fully successful and almost universally accepted machine used directly with cattle and the rates of its acceptance and development have to a large extent governed the trends in other methods of milk production. The direct effects of machine milking on labour usage are very evident. One milker took an hour to hand-milk about 10 cows whereas he can now machine - milk 60 to 100 in the same time. The indirect effects are less obvious but at least as important. The progress of the mechanization of milking has required changes to be made in cattle housing, bedding methods, effluent handling, cattle feeding and made possible new systems of milk production. In a meeting on the mechanization of livestock production a brief review of the trends in milking machine development is useful. Although the development of mechanical milking has had major far-reaching effects on livestock husbandry the changes are not rapid and major innovations such as the development of milking parlours take many years to become assimilated into farming practice.