Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1892 — MILK FOR THE MILLION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MILK FOR THE MILLION.

THE PRODUCERS, SHIPPERS, AND DEALERS. Kotmble Facts About a Great City’s Milk Supply—Where It Comes From—flow It Is Tested and Sold—The Farmer and the Milkman. Chicago’s supply of Milk.

VERY day in the year Chicagoans consume of fresh milk and cream an average of 80,000 gallons, which means 30,000,000 gallons ann ua 11 y, says tjie Herald. This is about four times as much as the ocean of beer thaUs drank up by i Chicago in the course of a year, ’and it is about thirty times as

large a quantity as the whisky that is consumed. It means an expenditure of $6,000,000 for milk per year, which Is—excepting meat and Hour the largest single item of expense in the food bill. This, it may be mentioned, takes no account of condensed milk, although of that, too, several millions of cans are sold in this town. From all of which it may be gathered that the milk industry—the producing, shipping, and selling of it —is not to be sneezed at in point of magnitude and importance. Another significant fact—the consumption of milk is growing marvelously in Chicago, more than keeping step with the rapid growth in the city. A couple of years ago one railroad system —the Northwestern —brought 2,000,000 cans of milk to town per year and earned some $300,000 in freight on them. To-day the same road ships 4,000,000 eans and has increased its freight receipts on it correspondingly. “The fact that more milk per head Of population is consumed in Chicago than lormerly,” said E. D. Brigham, division freight agent of the Northwestern, who has charge of the milk business of the road, “is principally due to the better quality of the article, improving steadily all the while. And this again is due, in a measure at least, to the better organization of both producers and sellers of milk. By reason of it comparatively little milk of poor quality is sent here, and the practice is so much discouraged and pays so ba lly in tho long run that It may be hoped that at last it will be discontinued altogether. There is, of course, no way of preventing dishonest dealers from adulterating or deteriorating the milk after it has reached them here, but even in this respect it is true that ‘honesty is the best policy.’ " Where the Milk Comes From. Nearly all the milk we get here comes from within a radius of fifty to sixty miles, a belt of carefully cultivated

eountry in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin The Dest and richest milk we drink is obtained from the dairy tarms that are thickly scattered all over the Fox River valley—a district which lor a number of years has borne a welldeserved reputation in this respect. On an average some 10,000 cans are shipped to Chicago every day in the year, but during the summer this rises to 12,000 cans and over, while in winter It frequently drops to 8,000. All these milk cans are of uniform size, each holding an even eight gallons, while in other cities these cans are of different sizes, those in New York, for instance, with a capacity of ten gallons. These eans are all owned by the farmers, each of them being compelled to keep two or three sets of them. And this, it may readily be conceived, represents quite a large sum of money. As a matter of fact, the milk dealers of Chicago, big and little, do business on the farmer’s capital, that capital being these identical milk cans. However, for the farmer the cost of these cans playß no very considerable part, even in the case of pretty large dairies, which send their twenty-five to forty cans of milk to town each day, while for the big milk dealer the expense would be a very large one, running into the thousands of dollars. Similarly, too, when cans begin to leak or are battered out of shape and become useless, the farmer has again to foot the bill, paying for the purchase of new cans and the repair of old ones. Thus we see once more that the farmer gets the worst of the bargain when dealing with thg shrewd city man. As for the cows which produce the great bulk of the milk we use they nearly all belong to a very common stock as cattle, experience having taught the dairy farmer who supplies our needs that the high-bred cattle, the ponderous Holstein, and the peaceful Jersey, are not so profitable to keep for milking

purposes as the cheap animal of mongrel er uncertain breed. For they do not cost as much in the first place, are more hardy and give a larger average yield of milk for the amount of their keep than the more expensive cattle. And the mice he gets here for his milk from the dealer is regulated by the market. It is Bo more for Jersey milk, no matter how rich and creamy, than for the common, * ISrllln* to tfae Conrami-r. ‘ Tbs ikrger milk dealers In Cbloago

usually have laid out their business on such a plan as to divide the day into two trips. The first ono of those begins about 4a. m. and winds up at 10 a. m. Then, shortly after, tho milk train arrives with a supply of fresh milk from tho oountiy. Part of this is at onoe, after submitting it to the usual test, transferred to wagons and disposed of during the afternoon trip. The other half is taken to the milk depot and stored safely till tho next morning. This is done by standing tho cans in capacious vats lined with galvanized iron. Milk In Transit. Milk cars, expressly built for the purpose and best adapted for the shipping of the laoteal fluid over long distances, are used. These are very much like the ordinary baggage car, with a wide, sliding door on either side. As these cars are perched up, early in the morning, at the various milk stations along tho route of each milk branch, loaded with their wholesome, fresh freight, long milk trains are formed. On the Northwestern road—the one which truverses the richest dairv country and does by far the largest business in this line—there are, for example, two such enormous milk trains sent over the line each day. Either of these trains consists of seventeen cars and ono runs through the Fox river valley district, while the other taps the Wisconsin division line. When fairly under way, after leaving Huntley, for instance, 'or Crystal Lake, these milk trains scoot along at an enormous rate of speed, fully as fast as the limited express trails, at times running fifty miles per hour. A milk train thus seen flying through space is like a streak of bright, golden lightning, for each car is of a rich yellow hue. Contrary to popular belief, the violent motion of the cars does not injure the milk perceptibly.

There is no churning of It, in other words, but if otherwise delivered in good order, and if stored conveniently in the car, the milk arrives here in firstclass condition after a ride perhaps of fifty or eighty miles. To see to it, though, that the milk was in good form in the first place Is one of the chief points the dairy farmer has to look out for. After milking his cows in tho early morning, the farmer has to see to it that his milk Is at once placed In the cooling vats so as to thoroughly extract all the animal heat in the fluid. This process is a simple one, each can of milk being placed neck high In cool or cold water, and usually it requires but from twenty minutes to half an hour to -cool the milk sufficiently for shipment. Then each farmer, of course, has to see to it that hjs daily stock of milk Is taken to ,the depot so as to be In readiness for *the arriving milk train. On the way there, if the spn is hot. he has to shield his milk from the direot rays of the sun. At the larger milk stations, such as those named above, one or more milk cars are left over night at the depots, enabling the farmers to load their milk. The train is thus gradually made up, generally between 7 and 8 in the morning, and it arrives in town betwabn 10 and 11. Arriving In tho City. The system of distributing the milk after its arrival in town haß been nearly brought to perfection. The Northwestern Road, for instance, has no fewer than six milk stations within the city limits. These are located at Clybourn place, at Western avenue, at 12th street, at 16th street, at Clinton street, und at Indiana and Jefferson streets. Of these the two arge ones are tnose named

last, but just now the railroad company is remodeling the large milk depot at Indiana and Jefferson streets, transferring it one block north, to Erie and Jefferson, and considerably improving the facilities. The enormous milk platform now being constructed there is being specially built for the purpose. On the arrival of a milk train at any of these stations the platform is crowded with seventy-five, one hundred or more wagons, each waiting for its load of milk. From the big milk dealers a string of wagons each is present, while the smaller dealers have, perhaps, only one or two wagons there. Altogether there are just about an even 1,000 milk dealers in town. A few of these sell hundreds of cans daily to their patrons, one company alone 850 cans, or 2.800 j gallons. But the bulk of them, being I small dealers, are satisfied with ten ean6 l or less. Each can is properly marked j and labeled, so that no mistake can ocj cur as to its destination. On each milk town, however, there is a milk conductor, ! and his experience and skill materially assist in the task of assigning and de- | livering each lot of milk cans to the 1 proper consignees. There is, besides, ! an expert in ihe employ of the Northj western Road, who is the milk agent, ; and who supervises the unloading of I each milk train. The freight on all this | milk has to be paid by the farmer, i and to facilitate this part of the busii ness, milk tickets are sold to the farmers at stated rates, each ticket being for a can of regulation size. In thts way a great deal of time and bother is saved, both to the company and to the dairy farmer. These tickets are sold in quantities ranging from 100 to 50f at a time, according to the size of each customer's dairy. Another very material improvement, greatly facilitating the task of buying and selling milk in large quantities, is the establishment of the farmers’ associations. This is a properly organized

and Incorporated body of rallk-produc-ing farmers, comprising about 85 per oent. of the dairymen in the region whence Chicago draws her regular supply of milk. The paid officers of this association have charge of collecting the money due each member from milk dealers In this city for milk sent. Each farmer owns stock in this association and earh pays 5 cent* per can for collecting payment therefor. Local dealers who are found to be not reliable or slow in paying up are, quite naturally,

reported to the farmers’ association at largo and their career is thus cut short, at least so far as dealing with members of the association is concerned. Very extravagant notions are entertained on the part of the greqt public on tiie subject of .adulteration of milk. It is safe to sav that not nearly so much

of this sort of thing is practiced as Is generally supposed. However, fraud exists in this line, though it may be stated right here that by far a greater deal of it is practiced by the Chicago dealer than by the farmer who sends his milk to be used. The methods for testing milk have become generally known in Chicago of late yeats. and it is now known to be an

oasy master to determine, beyond any doubt, whether milk is pure and wholesome or whether some adulteration has been going on. Science has determined that pure milk contains an average as follows: Water, 87.41 per cent.; fat, 3.27; caseine, 4.06; milk sugar, 4.54; ash, .72. When less than 12.8 per cent, of the solids are found present in the milk, and less than 3.27 per cent, of fat, the conclusion is inevitable that the milk is of poor quality and probably has been tampered with. Whenever reported ovidence of adulteration is discovered as samples from one particular shipper the latter is informed of the fact and unless he mends his ways immediately he is dropped from the list of contributors for good. Some of tlm big milk dealers sell none other than pure, rich milk, while others dispose of all kinds of milk, from the best to the poorest. There aro dealers in town who purchase from the big firms large quantities of skim milk at2o cents per can, or at the rate of less a cent-per quart. They in turn sell this skim milk at 2 .cents per quart to the small consumers, thus more than doubling their investment. There are other dealers, though, who are unscrupulous enough to mix this skim milk with pure milk and then sell it at the regulation price of sor 6 cents per quart. In any event, whether skim milk is sold honestly for what it is or under a false flag, there is money in it to the dealer—big money.

As to prices in general, they aro high enough to yield the dealer who has a good milk route made up of paying customers, provided he handles his article carefully and pays due regard to temperature, weather, ice supply, etc., a certain and handsome profit. Th j dealer pays the farmer at the rate of $1.25 to $1.30 per can of eight gallons in winter, and about 80 cents in summer, thus putting his purchase price at from 2i to 4 cents per quart. He sells it to his customers in the shape of tickets, of which he will give sixteen per dollar during summer and fourteen during winter, or from 6 to 7 cents pqr quart.

THE City MILK WAGON.

THE MILKING MAID.

THE FOUNTAIN HEAD.

IN THE COOLINO-ROOM.

LOADING THE MILK TRAIN.

DISTRIBUTING THE “SMALL MILK" ON THE WAY TO THE DEPOT.