THE SPRINGFIELD MILKSHED 7 



The Agricultural Census for 1935 records 5677 farms reporting "cows and 

 heifers milked" in those Massachusetts towns comprising the bulk of the shed. 

 Regular shippers to the various markets would account for 27.6 percent, part- 

 time shippers for 9.4 percent of this total. 



On the basis of reasonable assumptions and estimates^ the herds of the full- 

 time and part-time shippers had- 74.4 percent of the milking cows and likewise 

 accounted for the same proportion of the productive activity of the shed. The 

 balance of the reporting farms would have had two rows or heifers and combined 

 would have produced one-fourth of the total produced in the shed. 



Table 5. — Milk Production in Massachusetts 

 Monthly* 1935 



Pounds per Cow 

 Month Per Day 



January 16.0 



February 15.9 



March 16.8 



April 17.9 



May 17.4 



June 19.1 



July 19.0 



August 17.8 



September 16.8 



October 16.7 



November 16.8 



December 16.2 



Total 206.4 



Average 17.2 



*From Monthly Issues of Crops and Markets U.S.D.A., 

 1935. 



The producers were spread among the market groups on the following basis: 

 Springfield-Holyoke-Chicopee 63.8 percent, outside markets 24.4 percent, and 

 local markets 11.8 percent. 



Distribution of Producers Throughout the Milkshed 



The heaviest concentration of producers was in the northwestern part of the 

 milkshed, the area in which the Shelburne Falls plant of the H. P. Hood & Sons 

 Company is located. The smallest concentration, almost diametrically opposite, 

 was in Area 3 in the southeastern part of the shed. The ratio of the extremes was 

 five to one. 



Variation in the density of production was also very pronounced. The extremes 

 in production, however, were in adjacent areas. In Area 2, the Enfield-Somers 



^It has been assumed, on the basis of the average production per cow per day as reported by the 

 Crop Reporting Service, and the dehveries per day per dairy as determined in the study, that the 

 herds of "commercial" dairymen averaged 12 milking cows. Applying this estimate to the so-called 

 commercial herds, gives them 25,212 cows and heifers or 74.4 percent of the number tabulated from 

 the Agricultural Census data. 



