A  Visit  to  Optimistic  Farm,  N.  J., 
In  the  Good  Year  1940, 
Being  a  Vision  of  Whal  is  to  Come  in  the  Milk  and  Egg  Trade 
•  Part  I. 
Riding  into  futurity.— it,  does  beat  ail 
liow  different  these  you ng  fellows  do  run  a 
farm  from  what  they  did  when  1  was  a  young  man. 
My  grandson  bus  been  teasing  me  for  a  long  time  to 
come  out  and  see  bis  poultry  farm.  I  kept  telling 
him-  that  I  am  too  old  to  ride  so  far,  but  Harold 
said  it  is  only  50  miles  from  Tiie  It.  N.-Y.  office, 
and  offered  to  come  after  me  in  his  car  any  time  I 
felt  like  coming.  Yesterday  morning  T  ’phoned  him 
I  felt  just  like  taking  a  ride  and  in  about  an  hour 
y  Vyf  OG  ]  J 
same,  but,  (is  most  vehicles  have  rubber  tires  of 
some;  kind  tlitCtyear  on  them  is  practically  nothing 
so  that  they'' fife  said  to  be  cheap  in  the  long  run. 
1  believe^&e  State,  limits  the  weight  that  may  be 
carried  on  steej.  ti«*^-  A  railroad  train  or  trolley  car 
is  not  off  them. 
HEAVY  TRAFFIC.— I  asked  Harold  how  it  hap¬ 
pened  tli.Tt  we  saw  so  few  horse-drawn  wagons  and 
heavy  trucks,  and  learned  that  heavy  auto  trucks 
have  right  of  way  or  precedence,  on  the  steel  rails 
during  (he  night  and  early  morning  hours,  while 
horses  have  right  of  way  for  certain  hours,  and 
light  motor  cars  certain  other  hours  of  the  day.  He 
had  come  for  me  while  light  swift  cars  had  right 
of  way  on  the  rails.  Otherwise  we  would  have 
lie  manages  to  have  one  cow  freshen  about  every 
week  in  the  year,  so  that  the  milk  yield  is  constant, 
but  from  August  to  December  the  egg  yield  is  re¬ 
duced,  due  principally  to  moulting  heus  and  im¬ 
mature  pullets. 
MILK  DISTRIBUTION, — Ilis  account  of  how  the 
milk  is  distributed  to  consumers  so  that  instead  of 
his  getting  35  cents  of  the  consumer’s  dollar  he  gets 
much  more,  was  as  good  as  a  story  from  the  Ara¬ 
bian  Nights.  It  seems  that  a  few  years  ago  the  pub¬ 
lic  got  so  tired  of  the  cost  and  trouble  of  distribut¬ 
ing  milk  to  consumers  in  glass  bottles  from  a  dozen 
or  more  retail  wagons  on  each  street  that  a  radical 
change  was  inaugurated  that  is  very  pleasing  to  all 
parties.  The  first  step  was  for  all  the  retail  con- 
.•#'i3Sp$v v:;fc  wCVv.c-  i i-,t.  ’>  V,i  *-  .-v^  * 
:  JL  >  >  "•  •  >'  ■  ¥- 
O'-  u-  .  •'  •.<?  »:/  V*-.'  :'r 
IV  >  IP  r'L 
.  >> ^V5r\  U  4.  V  *—  .  'iAk. 
|.ir  --3wm  :■  f 
#1.  =■  s 
—  ■f>~-  -<ff  ,  •  .  -  -  -  v- 
.-i 
H  Kr  •  V  V  -\2<  -  •  +1 
u.,- « AcyV:'  .  *  X  |  j  .rs- .  k^..  V*-  .  J.  v,j 
,  -«  V  'U , v  .  ^ ^  i  Ajfc*  'v*  -~JWr%  1 
’j  -4  tW.:  s'  ^  •  ‘ ' 
V-v  v  pi-**,  ‘X 
,rv  _  > ;  1 1 
PM  to 
_ _ L-li 
A  Lot  of  Young  Stock  Raised  on  Delaware  County,  N.  Y.,  Milk.  Fig.  502 
we  were  ready  to  start  on  lln*  reiuni  trip.  My, 
wliat  a  fine  ride  that  was!  I  had  never  before 
seen  the  new  trunk-line  State  road  over  which  we 
rode  for  most  of  the  distance.  It  is  a  double  crack 
road,  and  the  wheel  tracks  consid  of  rather  broad 
steel  rails  with  a  slight  flange  on  their  outer  edge 
to  assist  in  keeping  the  wheels  from  leaving  tho 
rails.  The  remainder  of  the  roadbed  is  of  con¬ 
crete,  laid  even  with  the  top  surface  of  the  steel 
rails.  The  wheels  roll  so  smoothly  on  this  steel 
surface  as  to  do  away  with  the  necessity  for  pneu¬ 
matic  tires.  I  notice  that  most  of  the  vehicles  have 
either  solid  rubber  or  steel  tires.  None  of  the  old 
danger  from  “blow-outs”  here,  even  with  a  speed  of 
a  mile  a  minute.  Those  steel  wheel  tracks  cost 
more  than  the  old-fashioned  macadam  roads.  1  pre- 
hern  obliged  to  take  to  the  concrete  in  order  to  pass 
a  horse  or  a  heavy  slow-moving  truck. 
HENS  BY  THE  THOUSANDS.—' The  farm  I  find 
is  of  120  acres  and  on  it  are  kept  50  cows  with 
necessary  young  sto<  k  to  keep  the  number  good,  and 
10,000  lions,  lie  says  that  10,000  hens  are  about  as 
many  as  he  wants  to  personally  feed  and  look  after, 
as  lie  has  unite  a  good  many  other  tilings  to  attend 
to.  The  liens  are  kept  in  units  of  500  each,  and  are 
seldom  allowed  outside  of  the  large  houses  in  which 
they  eat.  roost  and  lay. 
TIIE  MILK  AND  EGG  CROP. — Last  evening  after 
he  got  liis  daily  load  of  eggs  and  milk  started  for 
the  city  we  had  a  good  long  talk.  I  noticed  that 
the  auto  truck  started  off  with  20  cans  of  milk  (10 
< I ita rts  each  I  and  Is  oases  of  eggs  (30  dozen  each). 
corns  to  consolidate  into  one  big  corporation.  The 
milk  supply  is  so  prone  to  carry  germs  and  .spread 
epidemics  of  various  diseases  that  the  city  was  glad 
to  grant  this  big  corporation  a  franchise  with  the 
privilege  of  establishing  a  chain  of  milk  supply 
depots  covering  the  whole  city,  under  certain  condi¬ 
tions.  One  of  the  conditions  is  that  each  of  these 
milk  stores  must  he  equipped  with  one  or  more 
tanks  that  take  the  place  of  a  milk  bottle,  a  refriger¬ 
ator  and  a  pasteurizer.  It  resembles  a  huge  ice¬ 
cream  freezer  except  that,  it  does  not  revolve,  and 
the  agitator  is  shaped  like  a  huge  auger  as  big  as 
the  inside  of  the  round  tank,  and  kept  slowly  re¬ 
volving  by  means  of  a  tiny  motor.  As  soou  as  a  can 
of  milk  is  filled  at  the  farm  the  cover  is  tightly 
fitted  and  sealed  and  the  can  immersed  in  ice  water 
