Vol. LXI1I. No. 2857. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 29, 1904. 
$1 PER YEAH. 
HIGH CLASS MILK IN NEW YORK. 
THE BEGINNING OF A FAMOUS INDUSTRY. 
How a Great Trade Has Developed. 
The following interview with L. It. Halsey of the Shef- 
lleld l'arms-S1 awson-Decker Co. will interest many readers. 
Mr. Halsey is a veteran in the business of selling high-class 
milk. What has been done thus far in New York is only 
an Indication of what is to follow here and in other cities. 
Pure, clean, guaranteed milk is now a standard article of 
commerce. The demand for it is growing and Mr. Ilalscy 
has seen it grow from the very beginning. 
"What were the conditions when you commenced the 
milk business in this city?” 
"It was apparent that there was a good field for a 
rich milk. There were a few wealthy men producing 
a very rich milk as a pastime, and distributing it to their 
relatives and 
friends at extra 
prices, but no one 
was supplying such 
milk for general 
consumption. We, 
therefore, decided 
to produce the 
richest and best 
dairy products and 
sell them at the 
lowest prices com¬ 
patible with a rea¬ 
sonable profit.” 
“Where did you 
find this rich 
milk?” 
"At first we pro¬ 
duced it all upon 
our own farm, 
which we called 
the Sheffield Farm, 
after the owner, 
-Mrs. Sheffield, my 
wife’s mother. As 
the demand be¬ 
came too great for 
our own produc¬ 
tion, we selected 
the most intelli¬ 
gent, thrifty and 
cleanly of our 
farmer neighbors, 
and, strictly super¬ 
intending their 
dairies, we shortly 
had them deliver¬ 
ing their product 
to us, when the 
cream and milk 
was manufactured 
and the whole 
product carefully inspected and prepared for shipment 
to the city 1 he district in which the old farm is sit¬ 
uated is not well adapted to the production of milk in 
large quantities, and within a few years the demand out¬ 
stripped the capacity of the whole region. Anticipating 
this condition of affairs, we had been carefully examin¬ 
ing all the country within 200 miles of New York City 
for the best spot in which to obtain this best milk, and 
at last found it at the headwaters of the Delaware River, 
on the western slope of the Catskills, which are from 
1,500 to 3,000 feet above the sea level. Should one. tak¬ 
ing our receiving depot at Bloomville, Delaware Co., 
for a center, make a circle with a 20-mile radius, he 
would include not less than 30,000 highly graded Jersey 
or Guernsey cows. There are tens of thousands of 
cattle on hills, covered to their very crowns with the 
sweet-flavored nutritious Blue grass, surrounded by 
the purest air, with innumerable springs of living water 
bursting from their sides. They supply the ideal home 
of the cow. These high, almost inaccessible hills, call¬ 
ing for expensive freights, are free from the cheap, 
nasty and injurious refuse feeds which infest the low¬ 
lands nearer New York City. The elevated, pure air 
makes tuberculosis almost unknown, while the facts that 
all the water used in the houses, barns and stables, both 
for drinking and cleansing, is led by pipes from springs 
high upon the hills, above every source of contamination 
and that all drainage goes into the river bottom, make 
typhoid and diphtheretic infection impossible.” 
“Does it pay to deliver milk to your customers so very 
much richer than the city and State standards?” 
“This is the very problem we have struggled for 30 
years to solve. We knew that by devoted personal 
attention we could produce milk as rich and good, and 
in some respects letter than could the wealthiest fancy 
A STABLE WHERE HIGH-CLASS MILK IS MADE. Fig. 345. 
farmer who must depend upon unwatched hired work¬ 
men. But could we profitably sell such milk at ordi¬ 
nary prices? Well, we did it, and we enjoyed the 
struggle.”’ 
“Could the same thing be accomplished at this day 
by you or others?” 
“No, it is impossible; cow and horse feed, freights, 
wages and rent are the principal factors in determining 
the cost of producing and delivering milk, and they 
have greatly advanced in price since we began. Our 
selected milk cannot be profitably sold for less than 
10 cents per quart bottle. The household milk costs 
less, but cannot be sold for less than eight cents per 
quart botile. At these prices all our profit is contained 
in the last half cent, and the whole of our net profit is 
less than fife per cent of the sum of our sales.” 
“What inducements are made to the farmers to deliver 
a rich milk?” 
“We pay the highest prices and take care that we get 
the worth of bur money. Almost the whole of the com¬ 
mercial value of milk is in the butter fat (commonly 
called cream) it contains. The city and State require at 
least three per cent of fat. We require our household 
milk to test at least four per cent, and the selected at 
least 4.8 per cent. For these qualities we pay a price 
correspondingly greater than the dealer pays who re¬ 
quires but three per cent fat, and to this price we add 
a premium for every one-tenth of one per cent of butter 
fat in excess of our minimum requirement. We pay 
over $30,000 yearly in premiums alone.” 
“But your success was phenomenal, and there are 
people who think you must have made use. of some 
secret and unusual methods.” 
“Not at all. We laid down these general principles 
when we started: First: We will get the best goods 
we can. Second: 
We will expose 
them for sale and 
deliver them in the 
cleanest, neatest 
and most pleasing 
shape we can. 
Third: If we buy 
any goods, we will 
pay a fair price 
for the very best 
we can get. 
Fourth: We will 
offer the goods to 
*he best people at 
a fair price. Fifth : 
We will consider 
every man, woman 
or child who be¬ 
comes our custo¬ 
mer a personal 
friend and bene¬ 
factor whom it is 
our privilege and 
duty to protect. 
We will not cheat 
them nor let our 
employees or out¬ 
siders cheat them. 
For 25 years or 
more we have 
faithfully tried our 
very best to carry 
out these rules, and 
our business grew 
in size and strength 
every year. There 
are three classes 
of persons who al¬ 
most literally took 
this business on 
their shoulders and 
carried it to success. First: Those intelligent and con¬ 
scientious women of well-to-do families, who know good 
milk from bad, and are determined that none but the 
best and most healthful foods shall be supplied to their 
families. As soon as these women became satisfied 
we sold the best goods, and could be relied on to con¬ 
tinue to do so, they not only insisted on having the 
goods themselves, but they told other women of the 
same class, and then our success was assured; after 
that we had nothing to do but deserve success; these 
women did all the rest, except what the physicians and 
experts in and out of the Health Board did. I do not 
think I shall anger the profession if I say there are two 
great classes of physicians, those who know more about 
milk and its effect on the human system than does any¬ 
body else, and those who know very little about it. The 
first class may possibly contain 10 per cent of them all, 
but more likely less than five per cent. The second 
class includes all the rest. Now we are supplying more 
