AyiMAL nOLSTRIES 213 



centration of dairy cattle is between and a little 

 south of Syracuse and Utica. This is the region 

 in which alfalfa is most successfully grown, where 

 the rainfall and snowfall are high and where there 

 are excellent pastures. 



From these three main centers of dairying, the 

 number of cows to a square mile decreases very ap- 

 preciably. Dairying is the dominant industry all 

 through the ^lobawk Valley and outside of the fruit- 

 producing district of the Hudson Valley. The gen- 

 eral decrease in the intensity of dairying in the 

 Hudson Valley region is due to the small pro- 

 portion of tillable land and the thin, stony and 

 unproductive character of much of the remaining 

 area. Orange County in the lower part of the 

 State has for many years been a prominent center 

 of milk production. It was into that region that the 

 city of New York first reached for market milk when 

 it had exhausted the territory tributary by short haul. 

 The first special milk train was run from Orange 

 County over the Erie Eailroad in 1847. 



The keeping of cows is the dominant business 

 along the Canadian line, through the Champlain 

 Valley, and over all the rough hilly sections of the 

 eastern Hudson Valley region. On Long Island, 

 where the population is rapidly increasing, the price 

 of milk is always abnormally high. A fair number 

 of cows has been kept there in the past but is now 

 rapidly decreasing. Dairying is now very largely 

 confined to the southern prong of the eastern end of 

 the island in the region of Freehold and South 



