12 



Condensed Milk and Milk Powder 



strenuous years of the War of Secession did the value and useful- 

 ness of condensed milk as a com- 

 modity become fully recognized. 

 During the Civil War there was a 

 great demand for this product and 

 from that time on the industry 

 grew with great rapidity. 



'The first factory was operated 

 by Gail Borden in Wolcottville, 

 Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 

 "*' *~ the summer of 1856, but- disap- 



ng. 3. The first condensed milk pointed in not obtaining means, 



factory in America, Wolcottville, Conn. ,, • _*■ i i a 



1 nothing was accomplished. A sec- 



ond attempt was made at Burrville, 

 five miles distant,, in 1857, by a company consisting of the owners of 

 the patent. A small quantity of milk was here successfully con- 

 densed and its introduction into New York began. Although 

 admitted by all to be superior to any before made, it was slow in 

 meeting with sales proportional 'in magnitude to the expenses in- 

 curred. Yielding to the monetary revulsion of that year the company 

 suspended operations, leaving Mr. Borden liable for bills drawn, on 



which he was sued. 



It was not until February, 1858, when Mr. Borden (with the 



other owners of the patent) associated himself with Jeremiah Mil- 

 bank, Esq., who advanced money to revive the business, that he 

 could be said to enjoy adequate means to develop his invention and 

 at which time the New York Condensed Milk Company was 

 formed. Abandoning Burrville, the new company established work 

 on a more extensive scale in Wassaic, Duchess county, New York, 

 in i860. In 1865, extensive works were erected at Elgin, Illinois. 

 Borden's Condensed Milk factories today number upwards of fifty, 

 extending from Maine to Washington State as well as into Canada. 

 The New York Condensed Milk Company was incorporated in New- 

 Jersey in i860 and in New York in 1870. This company was 

 succeeded by Borden's Condensed Milk Company which was in- 

 corporated in New Jersey in 1899 



In the sixties of the last century, the Anglo-Swiss Condensed 

 Milk Company was organized in Switzerland under the leadership 

 of Charles A. Page, then United States Consul at Zurich, Switzer- 



