The people's voice., 1957-06-07
Duirying Starred With
First American Colony

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enced in Virginia was, of course, als'
landed at Plymouth in 1920. That col
ony underwent the tortures of insult
ficient food. hostile surroundings, ant
grew to appreciate the essential place
that livestock had in their colony
Cows were brought to Plymouth II
1924.
Soon companies and governments
sending out colonists insisted thai
cows must be included in the pro.
visions. 1t became general practice to
establish a common pasture in each
settlement. The most famous of all
these is Boston Common-a great
park that began as place to Craze
cows.
AS the trek westward began, cows
went along. The family cow was es-
sential to the well-being of pioneer
families. and many wagon trains set
their pace not by what distance the
horses or oxen could travel in day
but rather by the number of miles
that the cow tied to the back of the
wagon could do. Dairying was fam
lily proposition.
In the growth of cities and villages
the family cow also played an import
ant role. There was as yet no dairy
industry to bridge the gap between
farmers and city dwellers. Lots of
villages and cities were usually laid
out large enough to provide space for
a house, a small barn, chicken coop,
and a garden. Ordinarily, the cows
were pastured in the village common.
This then was the picture of dairying
for at least the first 200 years in
America.
Then. one farmer may have decided
to keep few more cows and sell the
extra milk to his neighbors in town.
The neighbors were probably happy
to be rid of the morning and evening
milking chore-and thus dairy mar
keting began. The dairy farmer drove
his wagon into the nearby city or vii
lage, loaded with cans of milk, and
ladled it into the containers the home
makers furnished. His wife at home
churned butter for her own family
and put the rest in crooks to send to
the store in exchange for goods she
needed.
By 1841, farmers regularly shipped
milk to town by rail. Supplies weren't
always reliable, and sanitation was
often unheard of.
That same year, the first farmer
owned dairy marketing coop was
organized. Charles W. Hol-
nan in The Cooperative Way Wins
IN America, tells how A. A. Pickett in
jefferson City, Wis, got four of his
leighbors to pool their milk with him.
They made cheese in his barn, and
It the end of the season each farmer
rot one-third of the cheese made from
lis share of the milk.
Dairymen organized the first coop
reamery in Orange County, N. Y, in
egan to experiment and at last found
way to kill harmful bacteria in food.
'asteurization became the public's
major guarantee that milk is truly
afe food.
From then on changes from a fam
y-centered industry to a major food
ldustry came swiftly.
1856-First butter factory.
1878-Centrifugal cream separa- I
Or. :
1884-Invention of the milk bottle. ;
1886-Automati bottle filler and /
apper.
Notwithstanding machines.
1908-First compulsory pasteuriza- I
on law (Chicago). t
And now, $50 years later, there s
'e 100000 dairy farms in the U. S.
ne million of these sell whole fluid :
ilk; the others separate milk on the =
rm and sell only cream. These farms
i'll produce 129 billion pounds of
ilk this year, or over go million {
larts. Dairying is the most import
1t single source of income for farm 6