The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-14
CITY'S MILK SUPPLY
ST. PAUL WELL ADAPTED TO THE
INDUSTRY OF THE DAIRY
MAN
LIVE NEAR THE CITY LIMITS
Wagons Bring In the Fifty Thou
sand Gallons Needed Daily to Sup
ply the Demand Which Exists
Life of the Dairyman Not Hard,
Pleasant and Profitable.

One of the most important industries
carried on near great city is that of
the dairynlan. These dairymen, as a
rule, live just outside the city blocks
and within the city limits, and their cows
feed where the meadows come down to
join the city streets.
Perhaps no city in the United States
is better adapted to dairy farming than
is St. Paul. All around this city are long
stretches of fine meadow and green hills.
where cattle can feed for eight months
of the year. The land hereabouts Is so
rich that when the grass has been eaten
close to the ground the cows are turned
into a new pasture for two or three
weeks, by which time the old pasture has
become green again and the grass three
inches long. In fact, thousands of cows
could feed upon the countryside without
ever exhausting the supply of grass
The average dairy farm near st. Paul
is about fifty acres in size, and the dairy
man generally manages to rent about a
hundred acres near at hand, which he
uses as pasture for his cows. The rent
is very small, in good many cases less
than the taxes upon the land. This of
course is real saving to the milkman.
Upon his fifty acres he has a house and
barn and some sheds, where he lives and
keeps his cows and horses. The big barn
is generally six times as large as the
house, with tall windmill to pump the
water into the cooling room. Most OF
these barns are clean and sweet smelling,
and for fear that the managers might be
foul the cows are fed from the floor,
which is washed every day. The cows
stand in long rows of open stalls, like the
stalls in cavalry stable, and when they
are driven In at night there is a little
pile of bran for each on the floor.
DAIRY DISTRICTS.
One of the finest sections for dairy
farming near st. Paul is that district
north of the flats, known as Lexington
hills. Upon these hills is level plateau
which reaches to the river and Is
in large measure treeless Here the pas
ture is very good and the country air pure
and fresh. There are five dairymen with
in this small section who own herds Of
twenty-five to fifty cows, and altogether
their wagons carry to the city about $50
gallons of milk every day.
The river bluff between the old shot
tower and Fort Smelling is also home
for the nilkmen. Here can be found
over a dozen diaries. Along the base
of the bluff are to be found many little
springs of pure water that even in the
hottest months DO not require ice to
make the water cold. If you wander
along here any afternoon you will see
the cans of fresh warm milk standing
in the spring with the water bubbling up
through the sand and rocks. Along the
river bottoms corn can be grown, and
corn stalks make good winter feeding.
But the way the hay grows along the
bottoms Is something wonderful. The
result is that those dairymen living on
the river bluff feed their cows hay and
corn in winter, while those living on the
hill feed more bran and pumpkins to
their stock. This causes the great diff
ference in the milk sold by different
darieS.
1t is interesting to so to one of those
diaries in the late afternoon and see the
cows MIXED and everything made ready
for the delivery of the milk in the Morn
ing.
When the COWS are all MIXED the
pals are emptied into the regular cans