The Portland daily press., 1892-11-14
A LITTLE JOURNEY.
Among the Cows That Supply New York
with Milk.


with Milk.
Much Of New York's milk supply
comes from Orange, Sullivan, Ulster
and Duchess counties.
made a little journey through this
region net long since and saw the COWS,
the milk farmers, their milk wagons
and the milk receiving stations along
the railroad and river. The stations are
here called creameries. By the word
"creamery." western person under
stands factory where cream is deliv-
cred and made into butter. For infor-
nation and for many courtesies am in
debted especially to Mr.. F. A. Willard,
of the Newburg Register; Mr.. j. W. F.
Ruttenber. of the Newburg Sunday
Telegram; Mr.. Frank Drake, of the
Goshen Independent Republican, and
Hon. Charles Sears, of Montgomery, for
merly New York state milk inspector;
also to Mr. Hoffman, of Sunnyside farm.
I expected to see afat and fertile coun-
try, pastured by shining and picturesque
Jersey. Holstein and Dutch Belt COWS.
Judge, then, of my disenchantment as I
passed mile after mile of my journey to
see great herds Of dingy colored, long
horned, loose jointed animals, the word
"scrub" painted all over them in letters
of fire and lightning, so to speak. Inever
saw SO many scrub COWS in journey
Of the same duration. There was some
| good stock Of course, but not enough to
save Sodom.
sWhere are the good cows?" Mark
| the answer:
Farmers cannot afford to keep
blooded stock. When COW goes dry
! they sell her to the butcher. They say
they cannot afford to let a COW go dry
six weeks. The feed costs too much.
| So they buy fresh cow and go on.
/ They are under contract to supply just
SO many quarts of milk day, and they
must do it."
ssWhere do they get these beasts see
in the pastures hereabouts?"
"They call them Sullivan county cows
Some breeders there make a speciality of
raising them for the milk farmers"
Under this unique system, by which
| many good scrub goes untimely to the
| butcher, the farmer gets for the milk he
| sells from l a cents quart in July up to
81 cents in midwinter. He works till 10
| o'clock at night. Talk of slavery! When
the thermometer is 30 dogs. below zero
he must hustle out at 4 o'clock and take
the milk to the station. The man at the
receiving station sits by warm stove
comfortably, and sees the cans put
aboard the car or boat. We pay in New
York never less than eight cents quart
for this scrub COW milk. The irony of
the thing somehow amused me.
ssThe farmers are all getting rich of
course" i remarked. My informant
smiled grimly. He said:
II suppose one farmer in five is pros
pering. The rest get poorer and poorer;
SO does their land Four or five men
handle all the milk from this region and
ship it to New York to their retail sta
tions. Every milk shipper is getting
rich. Land about here used to sell al
$500 an acre. Now it is down to thirty
dollars. The farmers raise hay every
year on the same ground, and sell itso as
to get little more ready moi y. They
skim off the cream of the soil and put
nothing back. They have no time fol-
varied farming, they! say. All thei1
time goes to milking cows and carrying
the milk to the shipper"
| I talked to the shipper, too, this mar
who owns the farmer soul and body; the
man who sits back and grows fat ant
sneers at the farmer while he takes the
lifeblood out of him, drop by drop.
do not blame this middle man. On the
contrary, admire his cheek. There i.
something approaching the sublime
about it. If the farmers, free American
citizens, are blessed fools enough tx
stand by and let themselves be robbed
they ought to be robbed; that is all.
1.-THE trouble with the farmers" sale
the milk shipper, sis that they are no
willing to live as they used to. The,
are extravagant; their families want s,
many more things than they used to-"
Extravagant on a cent and a half
quart for milk In that last remark
see a CLEAN of hope. If the farmer
have not been ground down to homin,
and bacon diet, perhaps they yet will
rise. A worm sometimes turns. TIL
result of my Investigations was not en-
couraging to the future welfare of New
York babies. The farmers have no in
ducement to furnish anything but guam
tity in milk. The cheapest food tina
will produce the largest quantity of mill
they must have brewers grains or slop
: it is and must be all one to them. Ii
the judgment of several gentlemen t.
whom I talked the present lactomete
test required by the state law is too low
The per cent. of cream in the milk 0
some of these cows is as low as 6. Whel
it is remembered that Jersey cow
milk sometimes yields 80 per cent o
cream the difference will appear.
"Who would be free themselves mus
strike the blow" Inspector Sears say
that if even dozen farmers would com
bine and stand together they coul'
break the yoke that is crushing them
They could establish receiving station
of their own on the railway and al
agency of their own in the city. The.
would have to retail the milk from
their own agency, thus securing tn
| cI t., /