No. 4.] MILK PROBLEM. 35 



the second point was that the public do not appreciate the 

 value of milk, although it has been published and talked 

 about a great deal, and possibly it is for this reason : they 

 are not going to pay any more than they are obliged to; 

 just as long as they can get milk that is satisfactory at a low 

 figure they won't pay any more. That is perfectly natural, 

 but the time is coming, and before many years, too, when 

 the farmers who are in the dairy business, if they continue 

 in it, — and it is a question whether they will not get 

 discouraged, as Mr. Albree did, and go out of business, — 

 will get all their milk is worth, for the time is not very far 

 distant, I believe, when there will be a scarcity of milk, — 

 a famine in milk. This is not only true in Massachusetts 

 but in many other States. Cows are growing fewer, the 

 profits of the dairy business are smaller, and the demand 

 for clean, pure milk is growing greater right along. It is 

 right, if they pay for it, that they should have it, and I 

 believe the matter will be straightened out in the course of 

 a few years and the dairyman will get his reward. I would 

 like to ask ]Mr. Weld if that matter of the scarcity of cows 

 and the general unrest among the dairymen isn't a fact, 

 perhaps, all through the LTnited States ? 



Mr. Weld. The Secretary has asked an interesting ques- 

 tion regarding the comparative number of cows. Just before 

 leaving Washington the idea occurred to me that there might 

 be some interesting figures along those lines, and so I con- 

 sulted one of the latest authorities, and here are some figures : 

 in the year 1900, it is estimated that there were 16,292,000 

 cows in the United States; five years later, 17,500,000; in 

 1910, or ten years later, 21,801,000'; in 1911, 20,823,000. 

 You see, by consulting these figures, that the year 1910 

 showed a larger number of milch cows in the United States 

 than any previous year or any year since that time, the year 

 1911 showing a decrease of practically 1,000,000. For the 

 year 1912 it is substantially the same as 1911, but what 

 difference there was in the year 1912 showed a decrease of 

 substantially 224,000 cows over 1911. It would seem that 

 the height of the dairy business, so far as the milch cow was 



