NEW YORK, JUNE 13, 1903 
$1 TEU YEAR. 
Vol. LXII. No. 2785. 
CERTIFIED MILK IN ORANGE COUNTY, 
A MODEL J^EW YORK DAIRY. 
Sanitary Care of Cows. 
Twenty-live years ago, as a farm hand, I milked 
cows and carted milk to a creamery in Orange County, 
N. Y. I have not been in personal touch with the 
work there since, but last week I visited a modern 
dairy in the same county, and I could not avoid com¬ 
paring my personal experience of 25 years ago with 
the way I saw it done now. Then the cows were 
crowded together in a long dark stable with no win¬ 
dows. The ceilings were low and decorated with hay 
that bulged through the open poles that supported it. 
If one forgot to bend his head a liberal shower of 
seeds and dust was brushed off into the milk pall. 
Deep narrow drops ran behind the cows, and there 
was scarcely room to walk behind them, so short was 
ihe stable. In this damp, dark, foul dungeon the cows 
were housed and fed and milked. I assume that this 
was a relic of previous conditions, and that there 
were few such dairies in 
Orange County even at 
the time. I doubt if a 
single one could be found 
there now. Probably no 
other dairy in the county 
at the present time is 
quite u]) to the one I am 
about to describe, so that 
I have the contrasts in 
the two extremes. The 
latter is the Woodlawn 
Dairy, owned by Cyrus 
A. Bowne, of Walden, N. 
y. Mr. Bowne gave up 
ordinary milk years ago. 
At that time he built up 
a herd of Cuernseys and 
made a fancy article of 
butter. Now he has gone 
into the production of 
“certified milk.” This 
simply means that a com¬ 
mittee of physicians rep¬ 
resenting the New York 
Medical Society examines 
the milk and inspects the 
cows and stables regular¬ 
ly, and if milk and en¬ 
vironment stand their 
test, they then certify to 
its purity, richness and 
wholesomeness. To meet 
these requirements it is 
simply necessary to have the right kind of buildings, 
plenty of fresh water and ice, the right kind of cows, 
good and proper food for them, and then observe the 
most scrupulous cleanliness in everything. 
Starting with the stable, Mr. Bowne has a large 
roomy building ceiled tight overhead and cement floor 
throughout, so that the hose can be turned on and the 
whole inside washed out in a few minutes. The cows 
have fresh water in buckets before them all the time. 
The walls and ceilings are whitewashed. There are 
doors at each end and two sash windows along both 
sides. The manure from the stable is run out back 
to a pit where it is mixed with muck, and into which 
the liquid manure and washings of the stable are also 
conducted. The cows are fed well-cured hay, silage 
from mature corn, and green crops. At the time of 
my visit they were eating bran and middlings and 
green rye. Apparently perfect as this stable is, the 
cows are not milked here. At milking time they are 
led out into an adjacent building called Sanitary Hall, 
which opens through a door into the milking room. 
No milking is done in Sanitary Hall, but here the cow 
is brushed off and thoroughly cleaned, the udder is 
washed with water and sponged. She is then led into 
the next room, where she is milked. Both of these 
rooms are covered with sawdust, and one boy’s busi¬ 
ness is simply to go around with scoop and broom 
and pick up and remove the droppings. 
These rooms are large, with windows on both sides, 
and ceilings not less than 15 feet high; the walls are 
lathed and plastered. The only fixing is an iron tie- 
rail to which the cows are fastened while being 
milked. On one side of the room is a bath for the 
milkers; each milker washes his hands before milk¬ 
ing, and assumes a white duck sterilized suit and cap. 
The cows are purebred Jerseys and Guernseys and 
grades of these breeds. There was not a cow among 
all these that one would care to discard. It is an un¬ 
usual selection. In the milk room is a weighing scale 
and a sheet with name and number of each cow. A 
record is made by each milker so that each milking is 
weighed and recorded. The sheet lasts a month, and 
the record for the month is then transferred to a 
book. This shows just what each individual cow does 
for the whole season. They were giving from 12 to 18 
pounds when I was there. From the milking room 
the milk is passed through an ingenious little revolv¬ 
ing door with a shelf on both sides so that by turning 
it half round the pail is in the next room. This is 
the dairy room. Here the milk is strained through 
sterilized absorbent cotton. It is then bottled and re¬ 
duced to a temperature of about 45 degrees, and kept 
so until shijtped. The wash-room is another import¬ 
ant feature. This is provided with both hot and cold 
water and steam. It is here ali the utensils, includ¬ 
ing bottles, pails and suits are washed and sterilized. 
For sterilizing a steel vault is provided. The bottles 
are placed in a rack on a truck and run into this. It 
is then closed and steam turned on for more than an 
hour. An important feature of the outfit is the boiler 
house and pump room. This is situated across the 
road from the other buildings, and made of stone. It 
is provided with an eight horse-power Farquhar up¬ 
right engine, and pumps water, furnishes hot water 
and steam, runs Blizzard silage cutter, saws wood, etc. 
The thing about these buildings that appealed to 
me is their efficiency and completeness and conveni¬ 
ence without being expensive. The arrangement 
seems to be almost perfect. Cows, men and milk pass 
from one place or process to another just as they do 
in a large factory, with no loss of time or energy. The 
milk is retailed in Newburgh at nine cents per quart. 
A portion of the product is shipped to New York. 
Cyrus is the youngest of the Bowne family, whose an¬ 
cestors emigrated from New England over 100 years 
ago. He occupies the old homestead. In this he has 
been fortunate, insomuch as his millionaire brother, 
Samuel W. Bowne, retains a sentimental interest in 
the place in which he spent his boyhood. They have 
just completed a new house, which, unlike the barns, 
must be considered extravagant for a farmhouse. It 
occupies a commanding position on a high knoll, and 
is provided with every modern convenience of the 
most complete city or suburban house. I estimated the 
cost of the house to ex¬ 
ceed .^15,000, and Mr. 
Bowne confirmed the es¬ 
timate. The house 1 sur¬ 
mise was something in 
the way of a birthday 
present, which is rather 
in keeping with the mu¬ 
nificence of the man who 
makes $15,000 contribu¬ 
tions to a church, builds 
$50,000 dormitories for 
schools, and contributes 
$100,000 to church con¬ 
ferences, besides the hun¬ 
dred and one kindly 
things that he does and 
of which the public never 
know. But the dairy 
* buildings are on a scale 
proportionate to the busi¬ 
ness, and on an economic 
basis, and Mr. Bowne 
seems on the way to 
work out an unusual suc¬ 
cess. Practical farmers 
are sometimes inclined 
to resent the efforts of 
wealthy men to try their 
hand at farming. They 
must remember that such 
an establishment as this 
helps create a higher 
standard for milk or 
other products and that the higher the standard is 
raised the better the chance for a progressive farmer. 
It requires capital to make the public realize the dif¬ 
ference between low-grade and high-grade goods, but 
every careful farmer may benefit by this advertis¬ 
ing. D. 
APPLE CULTURE IN WESTERN NEW YORK 
Part II. 
FERTILIZERS.—There is nothing that gives such 
uniformly good results as a fertilizer as good stable 
manure. This fact orchardists are appreciating more 
and more. In the western apple belt stock is not 
plentiful nor would it be wise in every case for the 
farmer to increase his animals, yet in many cases I 
feel sure it would be an improvement along the line 
of maintaining fertility and helping to solve the labor 
question, by giving employment to the best men all 
the year around. In several instances last Winter 
when in the fruit belt, the writer was requested by the 
local people to give an address on some phase of 
THE FARM BLILDINCS ON WOODLAWN FARMS. Fig. 155. 
