New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-01-20
TONIC VALLEYS.

TONIC VALLEYS.
Pawling, n Y, Jan. 15.-It is a common saying
among the people who live among these charming
hills that when Nature arranged system oil
rivers and seaport as if with the special purpose
If having vast city built on and around Man
haitian Island she also contemplated thaU 'he
milk supply for the millions of metropolitans
should he drawn from this section. ana prepare"
the face of the earth here accordingly. Certainty
no finer grass lands, purer air ana water VI
Greater natural advantages for dairy farming can
no found in the wide world than exist in Put
nam and Dutchess counties in this State, and m
Jitcbfeld County, Conn. adjoining. All that
could no done 10 supplement the gifts OF Nature
hos been done by the tirelcSs hands and brains
% 90 generations of men and women. Splendid
farming buildings, that surpass the famous red
harms of the Pennsylvania Dutch, in the Lebanon
opd Cumberland valleys, crown nearly every hlll
and on the misty slopes of Purga;ory Mountain,
dividing the headwaters of the droton from the
streoms that form the sources of the Housaionlc,
browse herds of bloodcd Holsteins and Jerseys of
almost incalculable value
Tho entire country about here is given over to
,be production of milk for the New-NOrk City
market Every night there runs over the Har-
Ion, road 10 the Grand Central Depot one of the
richest milk-trains that reaches the city, nearly
tyenty cars with over 1000 cans, or 100000
ouarts of milk and cream. Paving is the largest
nilk-shipping station in the world, $50 cans being
sent from here every night. Al nearly every
station on the road from Chatham, 81 miles from
the city, in Columbia County. TO White Plains,
twenty-five miles cut, the milk-train picks up IT'S
cargo At Wassaic ST alton in Duchess County.
and at Brewsters station in Putnam, are located
the two great condensing factories Of the Gall
Borden Company. each buying 10000 quarts a
dav from the farmers around them. Then there
are creameries at many stations in these TWO
counties which buy great quantities Of milk from
the farmers. skim off the cream 10 he made into
butter. and send the denuded milk into the city
for sale All this to show the magnitude Of the
milk business along the railroads that through
these counties-the Pouehkecpse, Hartford and
Eastern. the Dutchess and Columbia. TIE Hudson
River. the New-York and New England. the New
York City and Northern, but chiefly the Harlem
Railroad.
STEADY DECLINE IN THL PRICE or MILK.
Yet after century OF steady effort at improv-
ing their business marvellous natural advanta ges,
close proximity TO the city and reasonably cheap
transportation about i cent a quart, the milk
producers of Westchester. Putnam, Duchess,
Columbia and Litchfeld counties find
that they are barely able at
the end Of the year 10 make buckle and tongue
meet Year by year they have seen the price
they get for their milk getting lower and lower,
while the price paid by the city consumers re-
NAMED the same and the cost OF producing the
article was as great or greater than ever. Here
are some figures that will show the startling
shrinkage which has taken place in the price OBJ
tanned by the milk producers in twenty-oae years
In 1868. the monthly average price for quart
was 4.s3 cents in 1869, 4.66; in 1870. AZ; IN