Vol. LIX. No. 2644. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 29, 1900. 
II PER YEAR 
THE MILK SUPPLY OF A GREAT CITY. 
IIOW CLEVELAND, OHIO, 18 SERVED. 
The Cheese Factory vs. The Milk Shipper. 
A NEAR-BY MARKET.—Cleveland is a great city; 
the metropolis of Ohio and the seventh city in size 
in the United States. She is right in the pathway of 
the everlasting march of civilization from the East 
to the West, and her advantageous position upon the 
lake assures her a future of great promise. She Is 
wonderfully fortunate also in regard to tne sources 
of her milk supply. All about her to the landward 
she is surrounded by a rich dairy-farming region. 
Eight great lines of steam railways, and about as 
many of recently-built electric lines, radiate from 
the city through this farming section, like the spokes 
from the hub of a great wheel. These railways gath¬ 
er nearly all of the milk supply of this great city 
from a radius of only about 30 to 35 miles, and though 
the amount required to feed so many people is enor¬ 
mous—about 25,000 gallons daily—it is ah gathered 
from such a near-by source that it comes ..o the con¬ 
sumer in an unusually sweet and fresh condition. 
The city authorities keep a large number of milk in¬ 
spectors busy taking samples of the peddlers, and 
whenever a sample is found that fails 
to come up to the required standard, 
the peddler is notified to appear at the 
inspector’s office, and he is warned 
that there is trouble ahead for him 
unless the milk he is peddling does 
not immediately prove to be of better 
quality. If the milk peddler is honest 
he at once turns to the producer who 
supplies him with the milk, and he in 
turn is brought “on the carpet.” But 
this does not often happen. A warn¬ 
ing is generally sufficient, as an of¬ 
fense repeated is a costly affair. Those 
milk inspectors have a sly way of find¬ 
ing out whether the trouble with sus¬ 
pected milk lies with the peddler or 
the producer. They go to the depot 
and take a sample from the can before 
the peddler has it in his possession, 
and then throughout his entire route, 
at unexpected times and places they 
surprise him. and take additional sam¬ 
ples. If the later-taken sample show 
a marked deterioration it is conclusive 
evidence that the peddler and not the 
producer is the one at fault. So per¬ 
sistent and watchful are these inspec¬ 
tors that but very few arrests are made, 
watchfulness of city officials cannot insure that the 
consumer who takes his meals au hotels, restaurants, 
boarding-houses and the like will receive pure milk. 
Many of these places set forth vile stuff in the name 
of milk. They usually take a given amount of milk 
daily, and then if the supply is likely to fail by rea¬ 
son of an extra demand it is thinned down and made 
to tide over the difficulty. 
THE PRODUCER AND HIS COWS.—The farmer 
usually makes a contract with tne city dealer twice 
a year, generally in April and November. The price 
for Winter milk is about three cents per gallon more 
than in me Summer. Prices fcr milk this Summer, 
since April, have been nine and ten cents per gallon, 
and will undoubtedly be 13 cents after November 
next. The regular milk shippers produce milk the 
year around, and if at any time their supply falls off 
they buy in more fresh cows. The drovers who sup¬ 
ply this demand for fresh cows and springers are 
busy feluws all the time. They scour tne country 
for 200 or 300 miles around the great city, and even 
go into neighboring States, and are on the move the 
year around to meet this constant demand of the 
shippers for more cows. Shippers feed their cows 
high, and turn them often. The butchers stand ready 
to take such cows at a good fair price. The local 
butcher does not want too much fat on the beef he 
buys; he will tell you that if you ask him, but he 
wants some fat though, and these high, grain-fed 
milkers are just what he wants. The shipper who 
has such cows can generally sell them when he has 
done milking them for enough money, so that the 
calf he obtains with the cow he buys, together with 
the cow he sold, will just about pay for the fresh 
cow. It is almost an even turn. Veals are high and 
bring a good price, and the butchers come and take 
them away. A good veal at four weeks old will often 
bring $8 to $10. 
TROUBLES OF THE SHIPPER—The milk shipper 
has troubles of his own that the factory men know 
not of. The irresponsible and rascally dealer keeps 
him in a nervous worry all the time, and the everlast¬ 
ing strain oi always meeting the milk car on time all 
combine to add a few gray hairs to his head before 
their normal time. This irresponsible city dealer 
(and he is a very numerous fellow), is a very trouble¬ 
some chap. He owns the shipping cans, and tho first 
you know, in the flush of the season, he will fail to 
send the proper number of cans, or perhaps none at 
all, and then the shipper is helpless with his 
milk on his hands, unless he has a few cans of his 
own, and if he sends his milk away in these he is 
very liable not to see them again. Then the dealer 
will fail to send his check on time, or perhaps send 
one dated two or three weeks ahead, and then there 
is a weary and often fruitless chase to the city and 
a tiresome hunt for the dealer, in order to adjust the 
matter. There are besides these troublesome inci¬ 
dents a great many other annoyances, and the milk- 
shipper too often has a tale of woe to tell. One of 
them who has shipped milk for more than 20 years 
recently told me that if there was a cheese factory 
within three miles of him he would send his milk 
to it. But in spi^ef all these troubles and losses he 
has made mordRnoney from his dairy than he would 
if he had sent to the factory. Freight rates are uni¬ 
form on all milk shipped into the city of Cleveland, 
and the producer always pays the freight. It is 15 
cents on a 10-gallon can, and 10 on a five-gallon can. 
COWS AND THEIR MILK.—The cows kept in this 
section are a mixed lot, with the Holsteins and Dur- 
hams largely predominating. There is at present a 
decided leaning toward the milking strain of the 
Durbams. The fancy sets strongly towards that way. 
There is just now a growing demand for a much 
better quality of milk, and at much better prices, 
which promises to be a good thing for those few per¬ 
sons—always few in number—who are smart enough 
to see a good thing and take advantage of it as soon 
as it heaves in sight. Tho farmer who can produce 
four-per-cent milk and guarantee to keep it at that 
point or above can get a fancy price for his milk, 
and be subjected to iewer annoyances about the pay 
than he who produces ordinary milk. To this end 
a few of the farmers are already bringing up their 
herds to the four-per-cent point, and are in conse¬ 
quence getting a good thing out of it. 
FODDER AND SILO.—Corn is the salvation of the 
dairymen of this section. Good old Timothy and 
clover are taking quite a back seat as a fodder for 
dairy cows. They are a necessity, and have their 
places, but they are not the necessity for cow feed 
that they formerly were. Silos are rearing their lofty 
heads on many a farm about here. In one neighbor¬ 
hood, near where I live, a number of farmers who 
intended building silos got their orders all together, 
and one of their number went to Cleveland and 
bought the material for six stave silos. The material 
was all dressed and beveled and put up in separate 
lots and shipped out to the men who 
ordered it, all at one time. By this 
method of combining all their small 
orders into one large one they were 
enabled to save a lot of money. The 
aerator for cooling milk is in quite 
general use. Good cool well water is 
all right when this apparatus is used. 
Ice is rarely necessary. Milk for ship¬ 
ping should be cooled only to the point 
of driving off all the animal heat, es¬ 
pecially during the heated season. If 
cooled to the point of actual chilling 
its temperature is sure to rise again 
and then a change for the worse sets 
in immediately. 
THE PRICE OF COWS.—Prices of 
fresh cows range from $40 to $55, but 
they are surely going higher. Cattle 
dealers are buying from one another 
and then the cows sell readily to the 
farmer with the second profit on them. 
A real fancy Holstein or Durham will 
sell now for $60. A dealer told me to¬ 
day that an ordinary, good, common 
cow would sell for $50 easily by Oc¬ 
tober 1. There is something in this 
drifting toward the Durhams after all. 
You know that Minnesota man that championed the 
“general purpose cow” in The R. N.-Y. a year or so 
ago? How they did jump on that man! But he was 
in the right. Where cows are turned as often as they 
are about here you must get something for the old 
wornout machine. A good Durham or Holstein, well 
fed as the shippers feed, will bring from $35 to $40, 
and that goes a long way toward the new cow. 
A. R. PHILLIPS. 
WHEN TO CUT SILAGE.—Silage corn cut when 
the ear is glazed, an occasional husk beginning to 
dry, and some blades dry at the base of the stalk, is 
hard to improve upon. We have cut silage corn and 
allowed it t~ wilt several days, always with unsatis¬ 
factory results. The quality of the silage did not 
seem to be any better than where it was cut and at 
once run into the silo. The wilting process increased 
the time required to cut a ton by at least one-fifth, 
and made the fodder much more difficult to handle 
in every particular. Corn when cut and full of sap 
is rigid; when dry it is rigid, because hard, but when 
wilted it is much more flexible, therefore is handled 
with less satisfaction and with greater difficulty. 
Ohio Experiment tation. J. f. h. 
' Ka ' ■ ' 
AN OHIO COW. KALSORA PLEDGE DE KOL No. 40637. Fig. 240. 
See Live Stock, Page 666. 
But all this 
