THE MILK SUPPLY OF 200 CITIES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 7873, 7 January 1904, Page 4

THE MILK SUPPLY OF 200 CITIES.

The ever-increasing demand for fresh milk to supply the steadily-growing requirements of the great centres of population in England seems destined (says the Times) considerably to restrict our home production of butter and cheese in the near future. It is true that our fresh milk trade has been assailed by .he foreign competitor, but so far with very little success, though there is no telling to what extent refrigeration may ere long be enlisted in his aid. At present, how ever, our dairy farmers have the milk trade in their own hands, and the circumstance that milk is a bulky product and that it must be delivered fresh should operate in their favour. The milk supply of London alone affords a wonderful example of modern development and of the successful organisation of a traffic, which enables tho dweller in the metropolis to have upon his breakfast -table fresh milk drawn only a few hours earlier from cows grazing on pastures anywhere up to 100 miles or even 150 miles away. So imperative is this demand for fresh milk in our thickly-populated districts that people li/ing in quiet country villages where this milk is produced sometimes find it difficult, or even impossible, to obtain a supply for themselves. In view of the prosecution of this great industry in our midst ifc ia iq.fit<itbing to fifady the report on

the milk supply for 200 American cities and towns which Major Henry E. Alvord has prepared for the United States Department of Agriculture. It is not known how many persons are actually engaged iii the production, transportation, and sale of milk in tne United States ; but, according to the 12th census, about 1,000 million gallons of milk are sold annually by owners of the producing cows, for consumption in the natural state or for household purposes. The value of this commodity, associated with the capital invested in its production, distributon and delivery, constitutes an interest of great magnitude. It is estimated that nearly one-third of the total milch cows in the Unite i States are required to supply the people of that country with milk for use as such. A close calculation has shown that the average quantity of milk per head of the population provided in the daily supply of the largest American cities is 0.61, or approximately twotnirds, of a pint. ' In smaller cities, including all with a population of 50,000 to 100,000, the average consumption is 0.63 pint. For cities with a population of 25,000 to 50,000 it works out at 0.58 pint; and for smaller cities still at 0.57 pint. In about a dozen cities, including Boston and Minneapolis, the average consumption of mflk per head is reported as one pint or more. The smallest average consumption in the largest class of cities is 0.27 pint per head per day; this is in New Orleans, where the supply is notoriously inadequate and unsatisfactory. The average consumption in four of the largest southern cities is only 0.38 pint, which is less than one-half of that in large northern cities.

The territory from, which the milk is supplied to the American cities and towns' is divisible into three zones. The first is one city itself. The second embraces the district surrounding the city, from which milk is conveyed by waggons. These ye hides usually arrive in the city in time to serve milk .early in the morning ; they may deliver milk of the previous "day, or the milk of the same morning and the preceding evening. Tne third zone in- ■ eludes a much - lareer U-iritory, horn which milk is carried to the cities by rail j roads, trolly lines, and steamboats. In about a dozen cities more than threefourths- of the supply comes from this ' zone. Seven cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, report mik received from paints 200 miles distant or more. The milk trains bringing the product from medium distances to the city, usually arrives between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., with milk of the same morning and the previous evenmg. Much of this is held over in refrigerator tanks to be served the following morning, a part of it is 24 hours old' and the remainder 36 hours. Trains parrying milk the longest distance usually arrive in the night, so that their milk can be served the following morning, and is not any older than much of that coming from nearer points.