No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 95 



and Commerce, in the study of expenditures of wage-earning and 

 low salaried men in the State, found that the average family of 4.88 

 persons spent annually for milk |20.25; for butter, |30.49, and for 

 cheese, $4.00; making a total of $54.74 for these dairy products. 

 This is equivalent to an annual retail value for the dairy products 

 consumed by the entire population of sixty-nine million dollars, or 

 for the non-farming population of fifty-nine millions. 



The figures of the last census show further that the farm values 

 of milk and butter were greater in Pennsylvania than elsewhere. 

 One other economic factor of importance is apparent, namely, that 

 the per capita demand for dairy products is increasing, so that the 

 future of well managed dairy farming is full of promise of good 

 markets. 



FARMING AREA OP PENNSYLVANIA. 



Pennsvlvania has an area of nearlv twentv-nine million acres. In 

 1900, 68.2 per cent, of this area, or thirteen million acres, was im- 

 proved; one-fifth of the area, or nearly six million acres, was occu- 

 pied by permanent pastures, farm wood lots and abandoned farms; 

 while one-third, or nearly ten million acres, was composed of moun- 

 tain land, or occupied by bodies of water, cities, railways, etc. 

 Part of the rough land is used for pasturage, but not where dairy- 

 ing is extensive. That is to say, while there is still some unoccu- 

 pied land fit for dairy purposes, the State must look rather to the 

 enlarging of the carrying capacity of her present improved lands 

 rather than to an increase of total farm acreage for the main- 

 tenance of the increasing number of cows requisite to supply her 

 growing population with the indispensable nutriment contributed 

 by the dairy farm. Likewise, the highest intelligent effort must 

 be directed tow'ard the most complete conversion of the grain and 

 forage crops by the average cow into milk. 



NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF MILCH COWS IN THE STATE. 



Looking further into the details of the industry's development, 

 with reference to the production of the basic material, milk, we 

 find that in 1809 Pennsylvania had 943,773 cows, of which less than 

 one-third were kept on her 32, GOO dairy farms; and that the aver- 

 age farmer kept 3.9 cows, w^hile the dairy farmer kept 8.9 cows; 

 in other words, the average farmer not making dairying a specialty 

 kept 3.9 cows, and the dairy farmer only two and one-half times 

 as many. The experience of the industrial developments of the past 

 century has demonstrated that radical improvements in complex 

 industries is secured only by specialization. Unless, therefore, the 

 conditions essential to such specialization of dairying are secured 

 and maintained, we can look for only a very gradual improvement 

 in the milk yield of the individual cow. 



The widely varying nature of her lands, and the great difference 

 in the diversity of occupation of the population in different dis- 

 tricts of Pennsylvania, has resulted in widely different develop- 

 ments of the dairy industry in the several regions of the State. 

 Thus in 1899, the average farm in Delaware county had 9 dairy 

 cows; in Chester county, 7.6 cows; while in Fulton the number was 

 2.6; in Forest, 2.7, and in Juniata, 2.8. 



