182 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



utensils were part and parcel of the milk trade of every city. Clean-up 

 campaigns were the order of the day and the disgusting conditions that 

 were often disclosed were all but unbelievable. The medical profession, 

 working largely through boards of health, was chiefly responsible for the 

 operation that cut the dirt out of the milk business, for speaking by and 

 large, the day of dirty dairying is over. It still persists in some cities 

 where milk companies and milk inspectors are mixed up in politics, it 

 undoubtedly persists in communities too small or too niggardly to pay 

 for inspection, and it flourishes in granger towns where business men feel 

 that the farmer's trade is so important that they had rather drink dirty 

 milk than disturb business by a clean-milk campaign, but in general both 

 milk producers and milk consumers are done with it, and its nauseating 

 details have been so often blazoned forth that it seems unnecessary to 

 say more about it. However, because of the importance that they once 

 had and because of the acrimonious campaigns that have been waged 

 against them in New York, Cincinnati, Louisville, and other American 

 cities, it seems well to say a little about "slop" or "swill" dairies. 



Slop Dairies. They were so-called because the cows were fed on the 

 slop or refuse from distilleries. As early as 1848, a committee of the 

 New York Academy of Medicine investigated and made a report on the 

 slop dairies that supplied the city. This action was taken because of 

 the oral and written statements made by physicians, testifying to the 

 evil effect of such milk on children and to the improvement that took 

 place in their condition when the use of such milk was discontinued. 



The committee stated that in 1842, the daily milk supply of the city 

 was 15,000 gal. but at the time of the investigation had greatly increased 

 and that some of the milk was brought long distances by steam, the 

 principal source of supply being: 



1. Milk from grass-fed cows, as from Orange County, for example, that was 

 brought by steam. 



2. Milk from cows fed partially on distillery slop and that was brought to the city 

 by steam as from Newburg, for example. 



3. Milk from cows fed partially on distillery slop in the neighborhood of the city, as 

 at Brooklyn, Wallabout, Bloomingdale, etc. 



4. Milk produced in the city or on its outskirts from cows fed solely on distillery 

 slop, as on Long Island, at 16th and 42d Streets. 



The cow sheds at Johnson's distillery, 16th and 10th Avenue, are 

 described in detail. At this particular plant the cows were cleaned but 

 this was exceptional and the filth in most sheds was augean. The num- 

 ber of cows at Johnson's ranged between 2,000 and 4,000. Several thou- 

 sand were kept confined in a small space and deprived of exercise. Some 

 hundreds were under one roof but a few feet above their heads, the space 

 being heated to suffocation by the sun, by steaming slops and by the 

 breath and body exhalations of the cows. No litter was provided and 



