FARMER'S 

 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



DAIRY CATTLE 



Dairying has long been assuming 

 more and more importance as a line of 

 animal industry, keeping pace in thi3 

 respect with the growth of large cities 

 and the consequent demand for great 

 quantities of milk and other forms of 

 dairy products. In the northern and 

 eastern states, particularly, this develop- 

 ment of dairying has been most pro- 

 nounced. In the early history of the 

 United States, dairying was of far less 

 importance, relatively, than at present, 

 largely for the reason that there was no 

 steady market for large quantities of 

 dairy products and consequently no in- 

 ducement for farmers to keep a large 

 number of cows for dairy purposes. The 

 tendency then was for each farmer to 

 milk as many cows as were required for 

 the production of the milk, butter and 

 cheese which he needed for his own fam- 

 ily. Gradually, however, the concentra- 

 tion of population in large cities fur- 

 nished the demand for more dairy prod- 

 ucts and this was the business reason 

 for the extensive development which has 

 taken place along this line. 



Statistics — According to estimates 

 made for 1905, the total number of dairy 

 cows in the United States was about 

 17,575,000, worth approximately $482,- 

 000,000. In the number of dairy cow3 

 New York leads with 1,721,000, followed 

 by Iowa, with 1,335,000 ; Wisconsin with 

 1,095,000; Pennsylvania with 1,086,000, 

 Illinois with 995,000; Texas with 838,- 

 000; Minnesota with 836,000, and Ohio 

 with 790,000. On account of the scar- 

 city of population in the extreme south- 

 west of the United States, the number 

 of dairy cows is very much less, being 

 only 19,000 in Arizona and 16,000 in 

 Nevada. The number of dairy cows has 

 varied from year to year in relation to 

 the number of inhabitants in the United 

 States, but this variation has not been 

 great and at present there is approxi- 

 mately one dairy cow to each five inhab- 



427 



itants. This fits the requirements of 

 the case quite satisfactorily, since on the 

 farm one cow of the modern dairy type 

 is sufficient for an ordinary family of 

 five persons. 



The importance of the dairy industry 

 is seen not only from the number of 

 dairy cows and their value, but from 

 the extent of dairy products; thus, ac- 

 cording to the most recent available 

 statistics, farmers sell annually about 

 2,250,000,000 gallons of milk, and butter 

 and cheese factories buy annually about 

 1,500,000,000 galrons of milk. Within 

 recent years, the development of cream- 

 eries on a co-operative or some other 

 basis has been rapid and extensive. 

 They have naturally used large quan- 

 tities of milk, as just indicated, in the 

 manufacture of butter. Contrary to a 

 widespread notion, however, there is 

 more than twice as much butter made 

 on farms at the present time as in fac- 

 tories, the amounts being 1,072,000,000 

 pounds on farms, annually, and 420,- 

 000,000 pounds in factories. The oppo- 

 site tendency is observed in cheese mak- 

 ing. The process of cheese making is 

 somewhat more elaborate than that of 

 butter making and requires more skill 

 and experience, as well as a more elabo- 

 rate equipment in order to produce a 

 first-class article. At present, about 

 16,375,000 pounds of cheese are annually 

 made on farms, as compared with 281,- 

 975,000 pounds in factories. The quality 

 of butter made on farms as compared 

 with the factory made product is far 

 better than the quality of farm cheese. 

 This fact has led to a lowering of the 

 price of farm cheese and a relatively 

 small quantity is made on the farm for 

 sale. The average prices received by 

 farmers for dairy products are 8.7 cents 

 a gallon of milk, 42.6 cents a gallon of 

 cream, 17.7 cents a pound of butter and 

 9.1 cents a pound of cheese. 



