THE KINGDOM OF THE COW 5 



"when used for dairy purposes. In the South and 

 West the percentage is smaller, while in the best 

 of the corn-belt country dairying is usually inci- 

 dental to other agricultural methods. In a general 

 way, all those farms in the East where pastur- 

 age is necessarily an important part of the scheme 

 are typical dairy farms. Some steep and rocky 

 fields now used for pasture properly belong to the 

 class of forest lands. There are other areas too 

 thin and poor to be grazed profitably by milch 

 cows, which in large units might possibly be 

 utilized for sheep, especially those of the Merino 

 type. In the West it is the sheep and the steer 

 rather than the cow that promise the best use of 

 the semi-arid regions. Taken all in all, the old 

 northeastern states, together with Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin, may fairly be termed the Kingdom of 

 the Cow. 



Of course, fertility and topography are not the 

 only factors that determine the location of the 

 dairy industry. Climate, especially in the past, 

 has played a most important part. Before the in- 

 troduction of artificial refrigeration, the handling 

 of dairy products required ice or at least cold 

 spring water and cold cellars for storage. These 

 essential conditions restricted the industry to the 

 North. Even now, cow-keeping has never attained 

 any large place below Mason and Dixon's line. 

 This failure of dairying to establish itself in the 

 South has a social as well as a climatic signifi- 



