474 THE CONTROL OF THE MILK SUPPLY 



disease breaks out notification must be sent to the Bureau, and 

 the matter is at once inquired into. 



Milk legrislation in the United States of America 



The development of the control of the dairy trade in the United 

 States is instructive. Dairying was practised in America in colonial 

 times, and butter and cheese are mentioned among the early 

 exports from the settlement along the Atlantic coast, but this pro- 

 duction was only a feature of general and pioneer farming. Dairy- 

 ing as a speciality did not appear in the United States to any 

 extent until well on in the nineteenth century. During the early 

 part of that century the care of milk and the making of butter and 

 cheese were domestic matters, and wholly unorganised and 

 seasonal. Winter dairying was practically unknown. These con- 

 ditions continued without material change up to the middle of the 

 century, and there was no order, no system, and no science in 

 dairy operations. But the twenty-five years which followed 1850 

 was a period of remarkable activity and progress in the dairy 

 interests of the country. Agricultural exhibitions, the introduc- 

 tion of breeds noted for dairy qualities, co-operation, and the 

 increasing demand were factors in the development. Williams, 

 in 185 1, began the co-operative methods from which sprang the 

 cheese factory system of the United States, and by 1869 such 

 factories exceeded a thousand in number throughout the whole 

 country. The effect of the establishment of cheese and butter 

 factories was to transfer the making of these products from the 

 farm to the factory, and this constitutes one of the landmarks in the 

 progress of dairying.^ The same period witnessed the organisa- 

 tion of dairymen in voluntary associations for mutual benefit and 

 the development of the trade. The American Dairymen's Associa- 

 tion was established in 1863, the North-Western Dairymen's 

 Association in 1867, and the first of the State Dairy Associations 

 in Vermont in 1870. Alongside of these various forms of 

 co-operation there was the introduction of dairy cattle, and the 

 efforts at herd improvement. The Shorthorn breed led in the 



^ For details of the managemenl of such factories see the Sixteenth Annual 

 Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry^ 1899, Washington, pp. 247-254. 



