8 



New Hampshire Experiment Station 



[Bulletin 332 



large, they are by no means as striking as the changes which have taken 

 place in the asseml)lin<^- and marketing" of milk in New Hampshire 

 within the past 50 years. 



Shipments of fluid milk to Boston out of New Hampshire were 

 recorded in the 1850's and perhaps began even earlier. 



"These early shipments were made by peddlers who brought into 

 the city the milk which they n.'^eded for their retail trade. But as the busi- 

 ness increased, there happened what has taken place in every other indus- 

 try — specialization. Handling milk at wholesale became a business distinct 

 from retailing, and the men who brought in railroad milk came in time 

 to devote the whole of their energy and capital to buying milk of the 

 farmers, transporting it, and selling it to retailers." ' 



Shipment out of New Hampshire to Boston in 1897 was entirely by 

 rail. Producers sold milk delivered to the car at the railroad station. This 

 milk was handled almost entirely in wooden stoppered, HjA quart cans. 



In 1898, Whitaker indicated the area of New Hampshire out of 

 which shipments of fluid milk were being made to Boston, as extending 

 as far north and west as East Lebanon, N. H., Newport, N. H., and Bel- 

 lows Falls, Vt. 



Writing in 1905, seven years later, he" mentioned producers as far 

 north as Lancaster, shipping milk to Boston. Presumably the Boston milk- 



THOUSANDS OF COWS 



IBS 



100 — 



75 



50 — 



25 



± 



\860 t870 



1680 



1890 



1900 



IVO 



l<?20 



I '^50 mo 



Fig. 1. Number of milk cows on New Hampshire 

 farms, january 1, 1867-1940^ 



1 For data on which this figure is based, see Appendix Table I. 



iWhitaker, George M., "The Milk Supply of Boston and other New England Cities," U. S. D. A. 



Bur. of Dairy Industry Bui. 20. 1898. 

 ^Whitaker, George M.. "The Milk Supply of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia," U. S. D. A. 



Bur. of Animal Industry Bui. 81. 1905. 



