THE MILK SUPPLY OF MASSACHUSETTS 



By R. J. McFall 



I. LOCAL PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS 



The State of Massachusetts draws heavily upon outside sources of milk, 

 tlie locally produced supply being inadequate to meet the demand. For 

 some decades the city of Boston has been obliged to import milk from 

 other states. At the present time fluid milk is shipped into the state from 

 New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New York, and to a limited 

 extent from Canada. 



Closely connected with the Massachusetts milk market is that of Provi- 

 dence, Rhode Island, which draws supplies from the northern New England 

 states in transit through Massachusetts, and also from the nearby Massa- 

 chusetts farms. 



Connecticut produces more milk than it uses and draws no milk from 

 the north. A small amount of milk is shipped from Massachusetts farms 

 to Hartford and sweet cream is shipped from the northern states to Con- 

 necticut during the summer months. Northeastern Connecticut ships some 

 milk to Boston and Providence, and Springfield draws some milk from 

 nearby Connecticut towns. 



Southwestern Berkshire County in Massachusetts and the western val- 

 leys of Connecticut, being served by rail lines converging to New York 

 City, ship milk to the latter market rather than to the industrial centers 

 of New England. Considerable milk is also shipped to New York from the 

 western counties in N'ennont. The shipments to that market from New 

 England farms nearly offset the shipments t > Boston and Springfield from 

 farms in New York State near rail lines converging to the latter cities. 

 Thus the milk production of New England is sufficient for its own fluid 

 milk markets and the shipments from and to New York State are based 

 upon the convenience or economy of transportation. 



By far the greater portion of the large production of milk in Massa- 

 chusetts is consumed in the smaller centers of population. The country, 

 the villages and the small towns are supplied almost entirely from local 

 production. The larger cities, particularly in the IMctropolitan district, 

 cannot find suff'icient local supplies and they afford the market for the 

 milk from the north. Some of the cities near the northern boundary of 

 the state bring in part of their milk by auto truck, but most of the ship- 

 ments come by rail. 



Through the courtesy of the Boston and Maine Railroad Company, it 

 has been possible to ascertain the exact quantity of milk and cream shipped 

 into the state by rail during March, 1926, and September, 1925. About three- 

 fifths of these quantities went to Metropolitan Boston. Since the Depart- 

 ment of Public Utilities has complete data on monthly rail shipments to 

 Boston, it has been possible to make a close estimate of the total annual 

 rail shipments into the state. 



Shipments by truck from Vermont and New Hampshire to the cities in 

 northern Massachusetts have been learned through the courtesy of the 

 milk inspectors of those cities. The shipments to New York City from 

 Berkshire County were obtained through the cooperation of the A""ricul- 

 tural Agent in that county. 



