508 • ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



at a medium between these two estimates, the value is greater thau 

 the yearly hay crop, greater than the crops of wheat and oats com- 

 bined, and much greater than the co^mbined crops of cotton, tobacco 

 and rice. The only staple farm crop which exceeds the dairy in 

 annual value, is the corn crop. Hence we say, and can do so with 

 good authority, corn is king. This dairy branch of the country's 

 food supply is even relatively greater than shown by comparative 

 figures; first, because the nutritive value of milk is exceptionally 

 high, and second, because milk and its products are directly avail- 

 able as food, without any expense in cooking, or other preparation, 

 and almost entirely free from waste. All dairy statistics must be 

 based upon the number of cows contributing to the milk supply. 



The w^hole number of what may be considered dair}' cows, in the 

 United States in 1900 is given as 18,112,707. The estimate given 

 for 1902 on the above number is, that we had at that time 18,200,000 

 cows. The average yield of milk per cow, was estimated to be 

 3,560 pounds per year, which seems not to be a large estimate. 

 The total value of dairy products in the United States in 1900, 

 being the last census, was ()00,000,000 of dollars. This great coun- 

 try of ours is not only supplying its own people with dairy products, 

 but is quite largely exporting to other countries. The exports of 

 butter and cheese for the calendar year 1901, amounted to 3,006,344 

 of dollars. 



Now we will consider the dairy and its products in our own State. 

 The latest figures obtainable report the farm value of dairy products 

 in Pennsvlvania are exceeded bv but one state in the Union. In 

 1900, the Twelfth United Stafes Census, we had 943,773 cows on 

 farms, and 78,301 that were not on farms, making an aggregate of 

 1,022,074 cows in Pennsylvania. The correct products of these 

 cow^s seems quite difficult to obtain, because it has not been fully 

 ascertained. The total number of farms in the State at the last 

 census was 224,248. Butter made on farms, 74,221,085 pounds. 

 Cheese made on farms, 857,167 pounds. Cheese made at factories, 

 10,267,443 pounds. Milk produced, 487,033,818 pounds. Butter 

 made in urban establishments 36,720 pounds, and this does not in- 

 clude the 78,301 cows not on farms. We have a total valuation 

 given of 35,860,686 of dollars, but that does not by any means ex- 

 press the full amount. These figures at once reveal the somewhat 

 startling evolution t^iat has been effected from a simple and crude 

 beginning, to the high standard of dairying that prevails to-day 

 throughout this State. 



I cannot close this report without speaking of the little county of 

 Lackawanna, the youngest in the sisterhood of the sixty-seven 

 counties of the State, and is not considered an agricultural county, 

 but a mining and manufacturing one; yet our farmers, having only 



