260 THE MILK QUESTION 



only in the milk question, but in the entire food supply of 

 the world. 



The extent to which this separation of consumer and 

 producer has taken place in the milk industry is patent 

 when we recall that Boston gets most of its milk supply 

 outside of a fifty-mile circle and some milk starts two 

 hundred and forty-three miles from the city. New York 

 City receives practically no milk within fifty miles and 

 some of its supply comes from points as far away as four 

 hundred miles. New York City uses about 1,600,000 

 quarts of milk a day, derived from 40,000 dairy farms. 



Most of the milk supply of Chicago is produced within 

 sixty miles of the city. A one-hundred-mile circle about the 

 city would include nearly all the dairies producing its 

 supply. In times of exceptional scarcity in the summer, 

 sweet cream is shipped two hundred miles. The produc- 

 tion of Chicago's milk within such a short distance of the 

 city is in marked contrast with conditions in Boston and 

 New York. Chicago uses about one million quarts of milk 

 a day. The health commissioner estimates that, in 1910, 

 120,000 milch cows were necessary to furnish the city 

 supply, making an average production of 6.3 quarts per day 

 per cow. 



The District of Columbia consumes about 76,000 quarts 

 of milk a day, or about 0.4 of a pint per capita. This milk 

 is produced on 1091 dairy farms from 17,688 cows. About 

 one third is brought in by wagons and two thirds by steam 

 and electric railroads. The cream is largely received from 

 Philadelphia and New York. 



Bringing the cow to the city 



In order to overcome some of the difficulties that arise 

 on account of the wide separation between the consumer 

 and the producer, it has been proposed to bring some of the 

 cows back to the city, to produce milk especially for in- 

 fants and invalids. 



