Milford chronicle., 1912-10-25
OF INTEREST TO FARMERS.
An Effort to Get Milk Train On the
D., M. & v. Railroad.


Farmers in the vicinity of Milford
need a milk train The fact is, farmers
all along the Delaware, Maryland and
! Virginia branch of the Pennsylvania
Railroad need it. The farmers need il
for the money it will bring them direct
| from the milk, but beyond that, they
needi it for the money it will bring them
indirectly in the shape of manure. Be
1t distinctly understood that the cows
will keep themselves with their milk and
make a good money bonus besides.
Our land needs fifty times as much
stable manure as it is now getting, and
it is next to impossible to get it. If,
however, every farmer had from ten to
thirty milk cows on his farm he would
get according to the Government esti-
mate) from $4,000 to $1,000. 90 worth of
manure on his farm each year which
would cost him absolutely nothing. In
order for such results to be realized it
is necessary for the farmer to have a
safe and sure market for his milk.
While a creamery might afford the mar
ket, and could still it is not like what
an established milk train would be. The
cities are rapidly growing larger, and
the milk demand greater, and there is
no doubt that twenty years hence every
railroad within hundred miles of Phila-
delphia will have a daily milk train or
two. It's my aim to try to hasten the day.
1t is to this end that this article has
been written. I am trying to interest
one of the largest milk dealers in Phila-
delphia to take up the subject, and at
the same time l want to interest our
farmers in the matter. The milk dealer
complains that he cannot get milk enough
to supply his ever increasing customers,
and, consequently, he is exceedingly anxi-
GUS to have a greater permanent supply
of milk. He now freights some of his
milk over two hundred miles so that our
distance would be no drawback. The
fact is, that he has had some of his
cream shipped five hundred miles.
He tells me that he would have to put
a refrigerator at each depot along the
line, which would be expensive, and
he must have some assur-
ance that milk train would be sustained.
1t must be brought to mind that this
subject does not rest with the railroad.
1t is small matter for them to furnish
cars. The milk, however,
must be refrigerated down to forty de-
grees before it is put into the cars, if it
is to be hauled a hundred miles.
He has not given me direct data as to
the price per quart, but he would pay
on the Peninsula branch just what he
pays elsewhere.
Now, we need the milk train, and, in |
we need the money we would |
get for the milk, but that is not the one
tenth part of its necessity. We want /
more manure and we cannot get it. Our |
and ought to produce four times as
much stuff as it is producing, and it can |
De made to do it, but it will take stable /
manure to bring about the change.
| do not wish to condemn commercial .
fertilizer, but commercial fertilizer alone /
will not bring up the land neither will .
green fertilizer (that is cOw-peas, etc,
)lOwed under). A run down farm must
lave extract of manure, must have
reatinine.
Peter Henderson says in his exceedingly
Iseful book, Gardening for Profit, "
,age 245, that it is necessary to put
twenty-five tons of we'll rotted manure
r one ton of commercial fertilizer per
ere for the proper growth of onions,
nd for cabbage the ground should be
overed three inches deep.
Where are we going to get manure to
over forty acres of corn ground three
aches deep? Is there any land in the
yorld that would produce more corn to
he acre if our land would have such a
ressing as that for a few years
Let us make no mistake. The keynote
D our magnificent success in farming is
lanure, and the way to get manure,
nd to get it for nothing, is to keep
lilk cows, and the way to successfully
eep milk cows is to have a daily milk
ain on our branch of the Pennsylvania
abroad. J. N. RHOADS, I
Chestnut Hill Farms,
Milford Dal