PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS. 19 
QUANTITY OF MILK CONSUMED IN CITIES. 
An inquiry was addressed to the boards of health in all the cities 
of 2,500 inhabitants or over, asking the average daily receipts of 
milk in January, April, July, and October. Eeplies to this inquiry 
indicates that the average per capita consumption was 28 gallons, 
or 112 quarts per year; hence the average person in a city consumed 
less than one-third of a quart of milk per day. The average farm 
consumption was 288 quarts in the year. If the average per capita 
yearly consumption is multiplied by the total city population, it 
shows that cities require 1,000,000,000 gallons per year. Another 
interesting result shown by these returns was that the consumption 
was slightly higher in cities of 25,000 inhabitants or over than in 
smaller cities. 
The returns regarding the variation in milk consumption by months 
were not entirely satisfactory, but seem to indicate that the receipts 
at the large cities fluctuate less than those of the smaller ones. The 
fluctuations were generally less than 10 per cent. 
MILK CONSUMPTION IN SMALL TOWNS. 
Since no data are available to show the consumption in small cities 
or villages, or on farms not having dairy cows, the total consumption 
can not be accurately estimated. If the average per capita consump- 
tion of milk in the cities of 2,500 or over is applied to the population 
not on dairy farms, but considered as rural, it would require 600,000,000 
gallons per 'year. If this is added to the quantity of milk received 
by the butter and cheese factories and condenseries, the quantity 
required to produce butter and cheese on farms, the quantity used 
for consumption raw upon farms, and the quantity consumed by 
cities of 2,500 or over, it would approximate 9,000,000,000 gallons. 
Of course a large quantity of milk is used for feeding calves in addi- 
tion. If this total consumption is divided by the total number of 
dairy cows, whether on farms or not, an average annual production 
would be obtained of over 400 gallons per cow. The average pro- 
duction, according to the census of 1910, for those cows on farms 
for which milk production was reported was only 362. 
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■WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1915 
