THE DAIRY. a2 
his farm. Mz. Goodrich estimates that it has added $20,000,000 to the 
value of farms on the Harlem Railroad. 
Mr. Eli Smith, of Sheffield, Massachusetts, informs us that, next to West 
Cornwall, Connecticut, Sheffield is the most importan{; milk station in 
the Housatonic Valley. When the milk train commenced running on 
the Housatonic Railroad, in October, 1867, this station sent only four 
cans per day. During the year ending November 30, 1870, it forwarded 
to New York 25,177 cans, of 40 quarts each, amounting to 251,770 gal- 
lons. The month of largest shipment was May, during which 28,730 
gallons were forwarded; the quantity declining in November to 17,260 
gallons. The business, which is gradually increasing, returns to pro- 
ducers from 5 to 44 cents per quart in summer, and from 5 to 6 cents in 
winter. Sheffield is one hundred and thirty-six miles distant from New 
York by rail. The station of West Cornwall, Connecticut, one hundred 
and eighteen miles from New York, during the year ending November 
30, 1870, sent to market 265,450 gallons of milk. 
Milk supply of St. Louis —It might be supposed that the market 
afforded for the sale of milk by the wants of a large city, or even a 
flourishing town, would soon produce in the surrounding country a cor- 
responding competition for its supply, especially where the conditions 
of farming are well adapted to milk production. This, however, is not 
always so, even in localities of superior agricultural development, as is 
shown in the difficulty experienced by the citizens of St. Louis in ob- 
taining a sufficient supply of milk. In January, 1870, Mr. C. W. Murtfeldt, 
secretary of the Missouri State Board of Agriculture, stated that, at 
that time, the city received no supply of milk by railroad, while at his 
residence at Kirkwood, fourteen miles from St. Louis, on the Pacific 
Railroad, “not a quart of milk is furnished for less than 10 cents, and 
even at that price people do not expect to get it pure. The night’s milk 
is skimmed and mixed with the morning’s milking, which is probably 
the nearest to pure milk which any of them get.” In a letter to the 
Department, dated September 24, 1870, Mr. Murtfeldt states that two 
associations have been formed for the purpose of sending milk to St. 
Louis—one in St. Charles and Warren Counties, and the other in St. 
Louis and Franklin Counties. He adds that the retail price of milk in 
St. Louis in summer and winter is 10 cents a quart. 
In St. Louis and its immediate vicinity there are, in round numbers, 
150 milk dairies, 50 per cent. of these being within the city limits, and 
the remainder being situated from one to two miles beyond its bound- 
aries. The smallest of these dairies keep not more than five cows each. 
The largest is that of Leser & Co., embracing 640 to 840 cows, according 
to the season of the year. he animals of this dairy are well fed, sup- 
plied with good water, and suitably lodged. In many of the small 
dairies the cows are crowded into dilapidated and filthy sheds. In all 
the dairies the stock is native and of inferior quality, values ranging 
from $25 to $80 per head—few animals bringing the latter price. Ina 
large portion of the dairies, distillers’ slops, at 10 cents a barrel, and 
malt, at 6 cents a bushel, are almost exclusively fed, a little hay being 
occasionally given. A gentleman of prominence in the dairy business 
states that in the St. Louis dairies the mortality ameng cows frequently 
amounts to 12 per cent. of the whole number annually, mainly resulting 
from close confinement, imperfect and filthy shelter, impure water, and 
inferior food. The milk sold is generally free from adulteration, using 
the term in its common acceptation, 
21 A 
