CHAPTER XXVII. 



SALE MILK DAIRIES. 



Dairies kept for milk to be sold for immediate consumption, 

 or manufactured into the "concentrated" article for transporta- 

 tion abroad, are of such importance throughout our country, that 

 a full chapter on them may be submitted. To show, somewhat, 

 the value of purchased milk in the United States, the "Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist," of January, 1867, informs us that the con- 

 sumption in the city of New York, and its immediate vicinity, 

 comprising about two millions of people, a ratio of less than one- 

 third of a pint per day to a person, amounts, at the sale price, to 

 four and a half millions of dollars a year ! Of this sum, the pro- 

 ducers of the milk get $2,300,000, and the other $2,200,000, 

 or about one-half the gross amount, is absorbed by the railroads 

 in freight, and the dealers' profits, which stand between the 

 producer and consumer. Now, as every city, town, and village 

 of any size in the United States, is more or less supplied with 

 milk from dairies kept for that particular purpose, it must 

 be apparent, that of the forty millions of people in the United 

 States, at least one-eighth part of them must buy their milk; 

 and of these one-eighth, or five millions, each consume, as for 

 their health they ought to do, half a pint per day, the aver- 

 age quantity per year will be 114,062,500 gallons. And if this 

 be worth twelve cents a gallon to the producer, as it probably 

 is, taking the year through, the sum total is the moderate sum of 

 $13,687,500 — and that only for one-eighth of our population! 

 We think our estimate is too low — that more than one-eighth 



