NEW YORK'S MILK SUPPLY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7808, 12 September 1903, Page 2

NEW YORK'S MILK SUPPLY.

ITS SOUROE ANO METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION. (By JOHN MATHEWS, in "Leslie's Weekly.") One -hundred and fifty thousand co **» constituting an immense herd, that would do honour to any great cattle range of the West, are engaged the year round in supplying all tbeir milk to the people of Greater New York. More than one million quarts of this fluid are consumed every day in the American metropolis. The stream flows to this centre from five States-— New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The milk industry in the largest city of America engages a capital of probably sixty million dollars. The territory which supplies New York City with this essential article of food is divided, in a general way, into two zones. The boundary of the outer zone is 400 miles from the city and the width of tbis zone is about 250 miles. The inner zone is about 100 miles wide, the outer boundary being about 150 miles from New York, while the inner boundary is 50 miles from the same centre. The area within 50 miles of Man_, hattan Island produces practically no milk, for this large district is not pastoral ; it is filled with suburban towns, all tributary to the busiest city in the^ World. In this 50-mile area there is no room for pastures and cows. And the suburbs of tbe city are gradually crowding the dairy district farther and farther away. SPECIAL MltK TRAINS. ■ So extensive is the milk industry that the transportation of this one product of the dairy requires the use not only of scores ot-specially-constructed cars but also of special trains on eleven different lines of railroad. These special trains are of two classes : those which run from the outer milk zone to the city aDd those which carry the milk from the inner zone. Starting at the farthermost milk station on any of the milk-car-rying railroads, the train in the outer adds milk cars and picks v up cans eJt wayside stations as ifc goes along until ifc reaches tlie outer boundary of the inner s"?ne. Then fche train runs as an express, without -etogping, until it reaches New York City. The milk cars are strongly made, and sometimes these traiiis attain a speed, after they have completed their load, of a mile a minute. At the same time another train has started afc the outer boundary of the inner ione, which, as it approaches New York, stops at all stations for cars or cans until it is within 50 miles of the city, when it, too, like tbe other, runs the remainder of fche distance at express-train speed. Each railroad has its own division point separating the outer from the inner zone. These milk-trains reach the various depots of the railroads always at night, excepting when accidents cause delay. The first trains arrive usually about 1Q.30 o'clock at the milk-platforms which each railway pro-rides exclusively for this part of its business. These milk-platforms are not used, as a rule, for any other freight. They are narrow, and elevated to tha height of the floor oi the car and covered with a roof. Ou one side of the platform the milk cars, are pulled in, and on the other side are backed up the deUvery waggons. The cans or boxes of bottles are taken from the cars, carried across tlie platform, and placed in the : delivery waggons. This proceeding takes pjace in the darkness of night, between ten o'clock and three, and during those hours there' is great activity at the milk platforms of the railroads. The clanging of the milk-cans, the clatter of the bottles in the boxes, the shouts of the men, make a strange jargon in the night stilh-ess. When they have taken their loads, the waggons whirl away and others take their places beside the platform. The filled waggons hurry to the various wholesale headquarters. - . , ' CTTY piST3aB]CJTION. Io these places the milk which comes hi cans is bottled, cream is mechanically separated from some of it, and' then the distributing waggons, the ones which call at the thousands of homes throughout ' the great city, start out on their " routes . with their daily supply; and if they are not on hand in time for. the coffee at breakfast, there is trouble. Thus, in a general way, is the distribution of milk in the city accomplished. / Milk distributed by some of the large companies comes to town already bpttled and packed in ice in boxes, this having been done at creameries in< the dairy districts before the milk is loaded on the cars. ' Part of the milk which was delivered by some companies in New York this morning was twenty-four hours old, part of it was thirty-six hours old, and the two grades of m.ik were mixed before they were bottled. . Milk that was drawn from the cow Monday evening was delivered to the city for breakfast Wednesday morning, along with the product that was milked Tuesday morning. Morning's milk is mixed with that of the evening before at the creameries ii the country or at the dairies, for there is only one delivery to the city ddiily. The farmer milks his cows in the evening, puts the milk in the (milk-house- over night, and then takes it, together with the next morning's milking, to the creamery at the nearest town; Here it is loaded some time in the day into the milk cars, which during the evening and early part of the night are taken to the city, and the next morning this same milk is delivered to the consumers. The distance of a large part of the dairy district from the centre of the metropolis makes this method in many cases necessary. Great care is needed on account of the age of the twiHr delivered to prevent souring; and this prevention is accomplished by tiie continued exclusion of heat. At a temperature of forty degrees, it is said, milk will 'keep sweet "indefinitely. Heat, agitatioo and uncleanliness all contribute to quick souring. Tiny bacteria spring into life in the milk and multiply with wonderful rapidity. Their aotivity produces lactic acid, which gives the sour taste to the milk, and which hardens the casein, clabbering the milk. These bacteria are not unhealthful; they only render digestion more difficult. This . MILLION QUARTS A DAY for New York city has made a large section Of New York State and the bordering counties of other States a vast dairy country containing thousands of acres; and there is probably no district in any land possessing more of the beauty of peace and serenity than 'that devoted to pasture and milk-producing. A dairy country has green hillsides with grass which distance makes velvet, and there are always clusters of trees, just as there should be, on the landscape. And on the distant velvet and under the trees are the cows, always suggesting rest and repose. At miking-time they are all excitement, eager to receive the : food which ifc given them in their stalls in tho great barns, and to be relieved of the burden of milk which they carry. Tbe dairyman who supplies New York has been able to make a good' profit of late. The milk companies which buy the dairy product and ship it to the city, pay three and a half cents a quart- to the farmer, and the quamtity of milk told by the fanner to the milk oompany is determined by weight. A quart of water weighs two pounds. A quart of milk weighs threfe-twentietlu* of a pound more. In the dairy district one New Yunk -milk coimpany has an interesting method of conducting its affaire. It owns no dairies, bufc buys its supply from those farmers only who will accept its rules and I restrictions. The milk is sent to creameries ! -—which are always at railroad stations — where it is bottled and packed in ice, and then shipped to New Yoak Oity. Any food that will tend to give a rancid taste or unhealthful qualities to mile is prohibited from use on the dairies, the produce of which this company buys. FARM INSPECTORS AND PHYSICIANS. To see that its rules are not violated this , i

same company employs several inspector-* who go' from farm to farm, calling on *the milkman at times when he may least expect one of them. .Aside from these inspectors,, thera are veterinary surgeons, who examine and treat all cows that become sick ; but, strangest of all, this company has a staff phyaician, who at once goes to the home of any dairyman where these is sickness in the \ family. If the illness is contagious, no mflk ig taken .from that dairy until -die patient is ' well. If, from the enfoncement of this rule, tbe dairyman loses money, he is _*ei_-ba_*ed by the company. _ , The dairyman at milkh-g time is required | to strain the milk into cans, end immedi^be- | iy after milking put these cans in tanks filled witb cold spring water 1 or .ice water. -The ! purpose of this is to remove at once the ani- | mai heat in the milk, so as to retard sourI F6r handling milk in large' quantities there are many unique contrivances. In I sarnie of the large creameries in the dairy : district the mißc «s it is bnonghft in by the ! farmers is poured from titer cans into great vats, from which ifc may be conducted through a pipe to the bottb-fQHng vat. This is a large, water-tight hex, which runs over a long tray containing mdlk bottles. At the bottom of the milk box is a now of apertures which are the same distance apart as tha necks of the bottles that stand in rows in the tray. - To fill the bottles a handle is turned at the side of the milk-filled box and a lid which eosrers the row of apertures in the bottom is lifted. The milk at once flows through the holes in a row of streams into the bottles, quickly filling them. Then the Ud co-wring the holes is dropped and the box is moped forward until the holes axe directly over the next iow of bottles. In thiswaySOO botties in a single long tray are quickly fiHsd. Some companies wash their mflk-bottiea with soap, using a patent, brush, which "scrubs out the interior. The bottles ire then twice rinsed in hot water aad afterward sterilised in steam-tight o_ses. . y HEAI/EK PRECAimONS. Few substances absorb impurities mora quickly than milk. It trauforms ea odour to a taste. Milk exposed to tobacco amoks will taste like tobacoo. It is thia suaoeptibilifcy to impurities that makes the inspection of milk in the city so important. Seven . inspectors in New York CSty ax* employed constantly, getting samples of milk ftem "retail stores, wholesale depoj^ att£ amm from waggons as they peas along the straits. The samples are taten to t_Es4ah<__rato«y of tbe Boardof Health sad these analysed. Usual milk contains from 85 to 88 per oenb water, the rest being solids— fet, «ug£iy casein and sales. Fat, the milk's " jwihess," is about 35 per cent of the aaWk. The Board of Health requires t__rt eU ______ \ sold in New York CSty must baro I_4 per cenfc of solid matter, 1 and that 25 per cient of the solids, or 3 per cent ol the whole milk, must be butter fet. Aad theae is a penalty for selling milk thai {alls below this ... standard. ■■'■.-■■*' The value of milk neoessary to supply tha demand of the metropolis and the necessity of transporting it rapidly a distance* of _no_dreds of miles bring into existence the milkcar, manufactured and used far, no e6her purpose. These can are smeller andT stronger than the ordinary freight, the exterior being made of practically the same material and painted the some oolour ss » passenger coach- lite milk-ear is- a refrigerator. At each end «_» iee-baaces, atti—i extend fram the floor tc. the roof and ««< filled from the latter, and et tiie sides -nei-' tive floor «>re soreened veatiDttors. And enrery day theee ears must to th-oeag-tfy acrubbed, for there is -much spilled agtiifa ia the dairy business. .