p. 764 | THE MILK ITEM

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 16, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 48.

THE MILK ITEM.

"THERE are $2,000,000,000 invested in the dairying business in this country," said a citizen with a predilection for statistics. "That amount is almost double the money invested in banking and commercial industries. It is estimated that it requires 15,000,000 cows to supply the demand for milk and its products in the United States. To feed these cows 60,000,000 acres of land are under cultivation. The agricultural and dairy machinery and implements in use are worth over $200,000,000. The men employed in the business number 750,000, and the horses over 1,000,000. The cows and horses consume annually 30,000,000 tons of hay, nearly 90,000,000 bushels of corn

meal, about the same amount of oat meal, 275,000,000 bushels of oats, 2,000,000 bushels of bran, and 30,000,000 bushels of corn, to say nothing of the brewery grains, sprouts, and other questionable feed of various kinds that are used to a great extent. It costs $450,000,000 to feed these cows and horses. The average price paid to the laborer necessary in the dairy business is probably $20 a month, amounting to $180,000,000 a year.

"The average cow yields about 450 gallons of milk a year, which gives a total product of 6,750,000,000 gallons. Twelve cents a gallon is a fair price to estimate the value of this milk, at a total return to the dairy farmers of $810,000,000, if they sold all their milk as milk. But 50 per cent. of the milk is made into cheese and butter. It takes 27 pounds of milk to make one pound of butter, and about 10 pounds to make one of cheese. There is the same amount of nutrition in eight and one-half pounds of milk as there is in one pound of beef. A fat steer furnishes 50 per cent. of boneless beef, but it would require about 24,000,000 steers, weighing 1,500 pounds each, to produce the same amount of nutrition as the annual milk product does."—Philadelphia Press.