THE STORY OF "CERTIFIED MILK.’’ 
FROM TIIE COW TO THE CONSUMER. 
Improvements and Changes in the Business. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Our older readers know that we have oflen referred 
to the dairy of Mr. S. Francisco, who supplies bottled 
milk to Montclair, Orange and Newark, N. J. Mr. F. 
has been a pioneer in many of the methods of insur¬ 
ing pure milk to his customers. 
His most successful plan was to 
secure the cooperation of doctors 
and health authorities. He en¬ 
tered into an agreement with a 
committee of doctors which prac¬ 
tically places the management of 
his herd in their hands. A code 
of strict rules to govern the feed¬ 
ing, housing and care of the stock 
was drawn up and is strictly ad¬ 
hered to. At regular intervals, 
the herd is examined by veteri¬ 
narians, and all diseased cows 
must be taken out. The milk is 
frequently subjected to chemical 
analysis by the doctors—in fact, 
every precaution is taken to in¬ 
sure a pure article. The result 
of this careful work has been to 
develop an immense trade. At 
the time of my last visit—early 
in September—about 1,500 quarts 
were being sold daily. The pros¬ 
pects are that a trade of 3,000 
quarts will soon be reached. 
Without repeating what has 
been said before, it may be stated 
that Mr. F.’s theory of how to 
produce pure milk, is quite sim¬ 
ple. Have a perfectly healthy 
cow that has been bred to yield 
rich milk. Feed her plenty of 
clean, rich food, and use every 
precaution to have the cows and 
the stables as clean, sweet and 
comfortable as possible. This 
will insure pure milk to start 
with. The only way such milk 
can spoil, before it gets to the 
consumer, is by injurious bacteria 
getting into it and developing. 
The remedy is to get the milk as 
quickly as possible into such 
condition that these bacteria will 
not work in it. As we all know, 
the bacteria are not active in ex¬ 
tremes of heat or cold. By heat¬ 
ing the milk to a high tempera¬ 
ture and then bottling it, w’e have 
much the same condition as is 
found in canned fruit. The milk 
would keep, well treated, in this 
way; but the best authorities 
argue that this heating is more 
or less injurious, and that the 
best way is to use cold—to get the animal heat out of 
the milk as rapidly as possible, bottle it, and pack the 
bottles in ice. That is what they do at “Fairfield 
Dairy,” and I shall try to tell, in a few words, how 
they do it. 
The big barn is shown at Fig. 259. It stands on the 
highest point of the farm, with drainage in all direc¬ 
tions. The cattle stand in two long rows facing to 
the middle, with a wide feeding alley between The 
manure gutters are between the cows and the win¬ 
dows. To clean them, a tip-cart is backed in through 
one of the big basement doors directly under the 
gutter; a trap door opens above it, and the manure 
is pushed along until it falls through the trap into 
the cart—to be at once taken away from the build¬ 
ing. According to contract, all buildings where the 
cows are kept, must be at least 300 feet away from 
any marshy land or any buildings where fowls, 
horses or dogs are kept. None of the men who work 
with the horses or around the manure pile, is per¬ 
mitted to milk. This barn will house 300 head of 
stock, and another one of the same size is now nearly 
completed. You will notice wires running from the 
barn, and milk cans apparently hanging in the air. 
That is the way the milk is run down to the dairy 
house. This will be explained later. 
Formerly, Mr. Francisco expected to raise his own 
heifer calves by using the best of Jersey and Holstein 
bulls on his best milking cows. He is now giving 
this up. To keep up a dairy of 600 milking cows 
will require such an army of joung stock that it 
would take nearly the whole farm to house them. A 
little experience with tuberculosis has shown him the 
necessity of having healthy and rugged cows for such 
a system of milk production. Most of his cows are 
now bought in the dairy districts of Delaware and 
Sullivan Counties, New York. In those healthful 
localities, fine dairy cows can be bought, in car-load 
lots, for considerably less than it would cost to raise 
them on the home farm. It is interesting to notice 
how this same idea prevails among fruitmen and po¬ 
tato growers, viz., the desirability of purchasing their 
stock for seed or production from 
more favored localities. The hill 
farms of New York State can 
produce cheaper corns than this 
rich New Jersey land. The latter 
can use the cows to better advan¬ 
tage, because it is closer to mar¬ 
ket, and can command a high 
price. 
The average cow in this herd is 
a big, strong, hearty animal, 
with usually more or less Jersey 
or Guernsey blood showing. Here 
and thei'e Ayrshire or Holstein 
blood shows. It is getting to be 
a herd of large grades, with 
enough good dairy blood to give 
richness and color to the milk, 
and vigor enough to eat and 
digest large rations of strong 
food. Mr. F. is a shrewd buyer. 
He knows a good cow when he 
sees her, and frequently uses the 
Babcock test. When asked about 
the use of tuberculin, he said 
that it was used on all the cows 
he accepted. He believes that he 
can tell by a physical examina¬ 
tion when a cow has tuberculosis 
to any dangerous extent, but 
tuberculin is a finer test, and to 
be absolutely sure, it is used in 
his herd, and any animal showing 
any reaction from it, would be at 
once slaughtered. 
The cows are fed hay, ensilage 
and a grain ration. A favorite 
grain mixture is 200 pounds best 
corn meal, 100 pounds malt 
sprouts, and 100 pounds of bran. 
This is mixed 12 hours before 
feeding, so as to form a soft 
mush. Formerly, considerable 
cotton-seed meal was fed, but its 
effect on the cows was not good, 
and linseed meal is now fed in¬ 
stead—usually a handful of the 
dry meal scattered over the wet 
grain feed. 
The doctors at first objected to 
ensilage, but finally consented to 
its use after careful examina¬ 
tion of its effect on the milk. 
The ensilage corn is grown in the 
fields close to the barn. Seventy 
acres of corn were grown this 
year, about 30 of which were fed green for soiling. 
A large part of the manure is used on this corn, and 
as the fields are close to the barn, this makes short 
hauls both ways. A great deal of clover is grown, 
and, of course, Mr. F. is trying Crimson clover. He 
also expects to try winter oats for, if they succeed 
with him, they will furnish a large amount of fall 
and spring feed. In summer, the cows are turned out 
to pasture about four hours a day—the rest of their 
green food being made up by hauling soiling crops 
to the barn. 
Mr. F. showed a field where one acre gave 20Q 
GRANDFATHER’S MONUMENT! DAIRY HOUSE OF STONE WALLS. Fio. 258. 
THE BIG BARN AT FAIRFIELD DAIRY. THE HERD! Fig. 259. 
