23B C2J History of Jersey Farm Dairy, San Bruno, California, R. G. Sneath, Proprietor. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES ROBERT ERNEST COWAN HISTORY JERSEY FARM DAIRY, SAN BRUNO. CAL. R, G, SNEATH, PROPRIETOR, DEPOT: 837 HOWARD STREET, 350 TEHAMA ST. SAN FRANCISCO. } -GEORGE SPAULDING & CO.. PRINTERS. JW foSS, 414 Clay Street. San Francisco. IP! \*r Jersey Farm Dairy, SAN BRUNO, GAL. This dairy was established in 1875, by R. G. Sneath, a merchant, farmer and banker, whose long experience in the city and country led him to believe that the introduction of a pure, wholesome and rich country milk would be appreciated by the people of San Francisco, and that a large and profitable business might be built up in the course of time that would be a credit to himself, a great so humanity to the people, and an honor to the State. =2 He purchased about 2,700 acres of fine grass land, ^ lying about four miles south of the city limits, and 2t reaching nearly from the Bay of San Francisco to the ocean. He has seeded about 1,400 acres into ^ rye, and cock's-foot grasses, that are perennial, -^ which now supports about 1,000 head of stock; ^ and when the whole place is cultivated, which he expects to do immediately, it will keep in fine con- dition about 2,000 head. About 600 cows are in milk the year through, and the remainder dry in pasture. Pure Jersey bulls are alone in use, and the place is named after the large herd of Jerseys, which is its chief feature. Over 1,000 calves are dropped annually, and those from the best cows alone are raised. The bull calves not pure and heifer calves from ,'570720 poor milkers go to the butcher The calves thus raised make fine milkers, gentle, and good beef cattle, when they come from crosses with graded short- horns or good American cows; and when raised, they take the place of inferior cows that are set apart for beef, and thus a continual selection and perfection raises the standard of excellence in the remaining cattle that must in time secure to Jersey Farm a noted breed of stock of its own of Jersey blood. A great many young half-breed Jersey heifer calves are now being sold to dairy- men and farmers who wish to improve their stock, at $5 each when dropped. This dairy is now perhaps the largest one of its kind in the United States, or in the world, and when its lands are all cultivated and fully stocked with such a production of improved animals as are now being raised, the proprietor may well feel that he is engaged in an enterprise that has no equal in its magnitude or meritorious claims. Springs of pure water in every field supply large troughs, to which the stock have easy access, and large reservoirs have been constructed at an eleva- tion of some 300 feet to irrigate hundreds of acres of land, furnish motive power to grind the grain, cut the hay, wash the cans, and sluice the barns, besides raising all the fish needed as food for the tables. Many thousand pine, cypress and gum trees are now surrounding the improvements, lakes, ponds, and along the roadways, and thousands are being 3 planted every year for ornament and future use. Fruit and vegetables for the tables are raised in large quantities, and the great variety of flowers about the lawns gives to the place an air of cheer- fulness and beauty seldom seen, if ever, in connec- tion with such a business. Chickens find this a provident home and thrive in great numbers with little attention. New reservoirs are constructed every year to al- low the fish to increase and multiply, and in a few years this business alone will be of great magni- tude, and no doubt profitable, as the cost of pro- duction is small. Cooking boilers of 300 bushels capacity are arranged so that one man can provide food thoroughly cooked by steam for 600 cows. The cans and milk vessels are scrubbed with the best revolving Russia bristle brushes driven by water power, and cleansed much better and cheap- er than by hand. The soap suds, together with the liquid manure from the barns and all waste water, is conducted to a pit, and from thence, after dilution, to the pastures. A blacksmith and wagon shop, with a plumber and tinker, and help of a carpenter and painter, make wagons and nearly all of the implements needed, shoe the horses and make repairs. The miller is constantly cleaning and grinding grain and putting it in shape for use in the dairy barns. He uses wind and water' power combined, and grinds his ton an hour under a fair breeze. The flavor and purity of the milk requires that all for- eign matter should be taken from the grain before it is ground. Smut, rust, mustard and raddish seed, nails, screws, glass, gravel or dirt, or floor sweepings which are found in grain do not make good milk. Each barn has a foreman and a man for every string of thirty cows. Three hours are allowed for milking, or six minutes to the cow, and these men do nothing but milk, feed their cows, clean the barns after each milking, and wash their utensils. Two men are required with dump-carts to clean up around the barns and stables daily, and haul to the dump. From two to three thousand two-horse wagon loads of compost is made yearly and ap- plied to the pastures in the early winter. Twelve and a half tons of green rye grass per acre is not an uncommon yield for the first crop, and three tons of hay is about the average yield of good land; while a fine green pasturage is kept up on dry land by irrigation throughout the dry season, and on moist land without irrigation. The milk is cooled thoroughly directly after be- ing drawn, put in three-gallon cans, and thence to a large thoroughbraced wagon in double tiers, con- taining 200 cans, weighing about 7,000 pounds. Six large mules are then attached, and the city is reached in two hours and forty minutes. Twenty- four mules are used in this service, and they make the time with the regularity of the cars. The large wagon is met on its arrival at the city depot by six drivers with their small wagons, and the load mostly transferred in a few moments to the latter. The remainder is placed in large troughs of cool water in the depot, and left for sale there. A por- tion is put in pans to raise cream, for which there is a large demand. The slummed milk is then sold at less than half the price of straight milk, if possible, and if not sold it is left setting till soured, when the balance of the cream raised is made into butter. Butter is churned twice or oftener daily, and, the buttermilk being of exquisite quality, finds a ready sale at the depot. The sour skimmed milk sometimes sells also, but if not, it is taken back for the hogs on the farm. About one hun- dred employes and about one hundred horses and mules are actively engaged in the business, which, with the cows, consume about 1,500 tons of ground feed, 1,500 tons of hay, about 100 rejected cows for beef, and about 100 hogs annually. Hundreds of thousands of trout, carp and catfish are now being raised for consumption on the farm and in the city. STATISTICS. A tabulated form is used at each dairy barn, and all the details of barn and farm booked daily and footed monthly, such as: Number of fresh cows put in and dry cows put out daily; total number of cows milked; the quantity of milk given, morning and evening; the average quantity given by each, and the percentage of cream the milk furnishes; also, the quantity and quality of each kind of grain or ground feed given; the quantity and quality of the hay; the condition of the grass pasture; the state of the weather; the quantity of salt used and everything is noted for each day that is presumed to have any effect on the quantity or quality of the milk The food is changed fre- quently, and experiments are being made contin- ually; and the proprietor can now, by looking over his tables, ascertain the cause of any shrinkage in quantity or quality of his milk. Bad and sudden changes of weather will cause the greatest tempo- rary shrinkage in quantity; and each kind of food has its effect, either for good or bad, and freezing weather dries up the cows rapidly. The proprietor feels that he is engaged in a great philanthropic work for there can be no question of the fact that thousands of lives, par- ticularly of children, have been lost in this city through the use of bad milk. And to furnish an absolutely perfect milk must be considered in the light of a great public benefaction. The death rate since the introduction of this milk five years ago, according to the Health Office reports, has steadily decreased from 18.01 per 1,000 in 1875-76 to 14.75 in 1878-79 notwith- standing the opening in the cross streets to the sewers have furnished a serious obstacle to any reformation in matters of health. Hundreds of physicians are now recommending the use of Jersey Farm milk and cream, not only for family use, but to the sick of all ages, and for nearly all complaints; and it has become a noted saying that if Jersey Farm milk and cream will not help them, nothing will. The city depot, 837 Howard street, is now a popular resort for hundreds of ailing people daily. Some want a drink of cream, others fresh milk; while fresh buttermilk, just from the churn, seems to be the panacea for most of the drinking visitors. The multitude is increasing from day to day, and it would warm the heart of any man that has a soul, to hear the old dyspeptics, say that they have had no rest or peace with their stomachs until they tried the Jersey Farm milk; and then to observe their growing health and re-animated spirits, while showering blessings upon the dairy goes far to enthuse the proprietor into a more vigorous prose- cution of his work. Do not suppose that this dairy is intended as a charitable institution, nor an undertaking to exalt the Christian virtues of the proprietor, as in con- trast with designing neighbors. The prime object is to make mon< y; and his theory is that more money can be made out of the business in the long run by the introduction of a rich and perfect milk than by the most scientific adulteration. At the commencement he found it very difficult to find believers in the announcement that he would furnish milk that was absolutely pure. So many had said fhe same thing a thousand times before, and failed to carry out their promises, that 8 nearly all were unbelievers. A few personal friends, that knew his character for veracity as a merchant and business man, made bold to try his milk, and they soon found out its value. Their immediate friends were soon notified of its discov- ery, and thus its reputation grew, so that the de- mand has steadily increased from a few gallons to thousands daily in fact, more rapidly at times than the supply could be increased; and now but a limited number of orders could be taken without increasing the number of cows immediately. The competition in the milk business is greater, perhaps, than in any other, and the profit is gen- erally in the amount of water that can be used the scientific part being in their ability to put in a large percentage and not be discovered, and also to sell milk made of city slops for country milk. Probably three-fourths of all the milk consumed is from distillery and brewery slops; this is called defective milk by scientific men, for the reason that the sugar in the grain has been changed to alcohol, and the refuse slops are lacking in the essential element necessary to form sugar in the milk. Consequently, such milk, being defective, \vill not support life. Besides, these slops are de- composed to such an extent as to be full of animal life, as seen under the microscope, and cannot, of course, make a wholesome milk. Public institutions in the East and abroad, such as hospitals and asylums, are extremely careful in securing the very best of country milk, but so far in the history of San Francisco there has been no attention paid to the quality of the milk used in her hospitals, except during the management of Supervisor F. A. GHbbs, as Chairman of the Hos- pital Committee of the Board of Supervisors. There are two Milkmen's Unions in this city, to which nearly all dealers belong, organized for self protection. One claims that brewery slops make good milk, yet do not like to admit that they use them, and decry the other Union because they are supposed to use distillery slops. Both Unions are a unit, however, in trying to prevent countrymen from selling their milk in the city to consumers, and which is the protection sought, as appears by a rule in their Constitution. They also have their headquarters, at which milk may be left for sale by those that have a surplus, and taken by those that are short an exchange, as it were, to equalize the trade. Consumers that understand the in- surance business can readily see that by this process they will seldom have the same milk twice, and a general average is much safer than to have but one kind of milk, in case it should be bad. Swill milk can be made for about one-half the cost of pure country milk from grass, grain and hay, and it will be made and sold and good coun- try milk driven out of market so long as citizens continue to use the inferior article. These Unions have done all they* could to injure and misrepre- sent the Jersey Farm milk. Perhaps a thousand persons have been engaged daily for the lust live 1* 10 years in trying to make people believe that their milk was Simon pure, and the Jersey Farm a hum- bug, but "truth is mighty and will prevail," and all this clamor has resulted in advertising the bus- iness and making Jersey Farm more popular. It has been slow, tedious and unprofitable arriving at the present position, notwithstanding the very large business done by this dairy. The heavy ex- penses are now nearly over. A complete and eco- nomical system has been gradually adopted that will insure a reasonable profit in the business in ordinary seasons, and yet allow the proprietor to continue to carry out his cherished idea of making a purer and richer milk than was ever offered be- fore, and yet make a living profit at the current rates for milk. The Jersey Farm standard is 12i per cent. , and the average of cream in the milk supplied the city of Boston the past year as re- ported by Henry Faxon, Milk Inspector for twenty years, was from 8 to 10 per cent., while the aver- age price of milk was from 10 to 15 per cent, higher in Boston than in San Francisco, and he says in his last annual report that if the citizens of Boston could be supplied direct from the fanner without the intervention of middle-men (and their water) with pure rich milk, that the consumption would be far greater. This is just what Jersey Farm is doing. It car- ries its milk to the consumer's door, all over the city, in quantities to suit, fresh and without chance of adulteration, directly from the farm, the price 11 being uniform to all persons for a like quantity, and entirely uniform in quality. Families find al- most universally that on changing to Jersey Farm milk that they require more of it than their usual quantity, which is simply because the members of the family soon become fond of it and drink more. Milk at present prices, compared with the cost of other kinds of food, is the most economical to use of any, and yet many persons act upon the theory that milk is an expensive luxury. It has been found that grass, grain and clean, well cured grain hay, or that from cultivated grasses, makes the sweetest, heaviest and most perfect milk. Beets and carrots 'make thin milk, potatoes and slops ruin its flavor and make thin milk; grass or hay and bran alone make thin milk also, although wholesome. The natural grasses of the country that are mostly weeds do not make good milk, butter or cheese. Grain is the main dependence, with good grass and hay, in making a rich milk; and even when the cows on Jersey Farm are up to their knees in the very best cultivated grasses, they get not less than five pounds of ground feed daily, and from that to fif- teen pounds as the dry season progresses. The latter amount, with fifteen pounds of hay to each animal daily, is called heavy feeding and necessary to produce a full flow of milk in the dry season. It requires the keeping of about two cows to insure one in milk the year through. The cows in the barn will not average over two gallons of milk 12 daily for the year. Some cows will give from five to six gallons, while the strippers are only giving one gallon each for the day. In the grass season the average is 2 gallons per cow daily, and in the drv season from If to 2 gallons. It can thus be seen that if food costs one cent per pound, which is frequently the case, and thirty pounds fed, and only two gallons obtained by keeping two cows one supposed to be on dry pasture that the milk would cost 15 cents per gallon simply for the feed of one cow. The other expenses are difficult to estimate, but must nearly double the cost of feed alone. The item of the milkers' wages being about three cents per gallon, and the wastage and cost of delivery, the wages of general employes, the use of the farm, the loss of animals, loss in collections, wear and tear of wagons, harness and implements of all kinds, with many accidents, runs up the cost fearfully, and with a high' cost for feed, the milk- man is almost sure to be bankrupted, unless he can escape by water. The proprietor frequently keeps a year's supply of feed in advance that he may be insured against high prices and charge a uniform price for milk, and it is only because of an abundant capital, much forethought, with a vigorous and economical pros- ecution of the business, a large experience and personal acquaintance, that he has been enabled to prove that his theory and plans can be made financially successful. Hundreds of farmers in the vicinity of San Francisco have tried the same thing but have been unsuccessful, and they will continue to be so, as long as slop milk is permitted to be sold, and consumers are careless as to what they use. Milk is more plentiful during the spring months than at any other season, and milkmen from the country would then make money, as grass is the cheapest food used by them, but unfortunately just at that time the city becomes depopulated to a great extent by the exodus to the country for health and pleasure; while the great demand for milk comes in the fall and winter, at a time when it is most difficult and expensive to make milk. Therefore the proprietor during the flush season raises most of his calves, and makes butter from any surplus. Contracts to supply milk are gen- erally for the year, and the limit in quantity, is what can be produced during the dry season, in order that all contracts may be filled from Jersey Farm milk alone, as the proprietor will not be re- sponsible for any other person's milk, or use it whatever in supplying customers. The proprietor lives on the farm and gives it his personal attention every morning and evening. He supervises generally all of the work, and in- spects the food, cows and the milk, and looks closely into the details of the business, both in the city and country. His son, George R. Sneath, superintends farm No. 2, and has become quite proficient, and takes as much interest in the place as his father does. 14 Mr. Chas. "Whitmore superintends the front farm, or No. 1, during the illness of F. W. Sneath, the eldest son, and Mr. G. A. Barnett has charge of the city depot, 837 Howard street; and they, with their foremen, carry out all the plans of the proprietor. They are instructed to allow all persons that are consumers of milk to examine thoroughly all of the details of the business, from the feeding of the cows up to the time of the delivery of the milk to consumers as well as the cows themselves that they may know that the milk is pure, rich and wholesome. Perhaps two thousand persons have been en- gaged about the business the past five years, and large numbers discharged; but we have yet to hear of a single person that ever charged that any of the milk had been adulterated during that time and it would be utterly impossible for any person to have adulterated it without the knowledge of those employees. The trying time with milkmen is in the dry sea- sou and early winter, when milk becomes scarce and high. When it is impossible to buy, and fill an increased demand from regular customers, they must then either lose their customers or put in water. The water goes in, of course; and it is at such times that Jersey Farm takes in many cus- tomers. So many losses have been made, how- ever, by watering too much, that there is a whole- some fear abroad now among the dealers, and thus the proprietor of Jersey Farm may fairly have the credit of causing a much higher general standard of milk. Many young men that desired to make a living out of the milk business have been furnished with milk from Jersey Fai*m at wholesale rates; and they had a fair margin, and could have done well, but the temptation to substitute cheaper milk and the use of water was too much for them, and they lost their business gradually, until failure was the result. There is no calling that requires more stamina or integrity of purpose in escaping from the temptations that hourly beset the milkman. He is called to supply cream, perhaps, which he can only take from his customers' milk; or supply milk at a round price, when he can only do it by watering, mixing skimmed with unskimmed, old with new, or many other devious ways that a con- sumer may not find out. They are thus led into fraud easily, and cannot halt. Families and large censumers of cream should always set their own cream. It is more economical, and it furnishes the best method of testing the richness of the milk daily. They would then know that their cream was pure. Cream is easily imitated, by the use of white glue, arrowroot, and man} r other substances, so well that it cannot easily be detected; and fixed up milk will not raise much cream, although it may look and taste as well as good milk. Swill milk and that made from alfalfa hay be- 16 comes obnoxious to the smell when sour; and by the microscope, is the only reliable method of de- tecting diseased milk. Servants, butlers and purveyors, find in milk a great source of profit, as milkmen must have their friendship in order to avoid too much scrutiny; and here is where the proprietor has found his greatest trouble. He does not allow any fees to be given to any person, under any circumstances, in order to sell his milk, and he has thus failed in many cases to get business, or prevent his milk from being tampered with after its delivery, as the above important personages will not forego the usual tribute to them. And many servant girls who look to the daily visit of their good-looking young milkman as the event of the day, cannot with composure allow his displacement, and they know too well how to effect his return, by skim- ming, souring, or fixing the new milkman's milk. The drivers of the Jersey Farm wagons are posted, however, and if the mistress will consent to lock their milk up for a short time, and look to it hej- self, she will then know what to expect of the milk, and can detect thereafter any deviation from the standard. The one cow's milk, which many consumers call for, is looked upon as a farce by most milkmen. It is made by making one or more cans a little richer than others, and selling it at a higher rate. The sharpest practice, however, is in men, and frequently women, keeping one. or more cows in a 17 respectable neighborhood, where they can be seen by the consumer, who believes that he is especially favored in getting his milk from a neighbor's cow; but if he will look into the matter he will find that the cow is, perhaps, a blind, and that the milk of twenty swill-fed cows is being served to a delighted neighborhood under cover of a few dry cows, or that the owner is a scavenger, and feeds his cows upon decayed vegetables or swills of the neigh- borhood, in a state of decomposition; and in either case there is a large profit to the milkman. These practices are well known to the trade, and the proprietor of Jersey Farm hopes that the attention of citizens will be called to the fact that their patronage to these and many other frauds is the cause of their continuance; and if a proper degree of inquiry and investigation was made by consumers the great evil of adulterated and poi- sonous milk would soon disappear. CHEAP MILK. Many hotels, restaurants, boarding-houses and families, in their desire to economize, buy the lower grades of milk in market at from ten to fif- teen per cent lower than Jersey Farm prices. They get milk, however, that will only raise from G to 8 per cent, of cream, and that contains from 30 to 50 per cent, of added water, which, if they would put in themselves into pure, rich milk, they would save from 15 to 30 per cent, more money 18 than they now do in buying poor milk. City slop milk can be made and sold at much less rates than at present, and consumers ought to know when purchasing whether it is city or country milk. The secret of watering milk heavily so as not to be detected easily is to add salt, which coagulates it and gives it body, apparently, while a little burnt molasses or sugar will give it the natural appear- ance of country milk and disguise the watery ap- pearance. This can be done as well by second- class houses as by the milkmen, and by which a great saving can be effected without dealing in slop or unwholesome milk; or the skimmed milk of this dairy, that not over one-half of the cream has been taken off and perfectly sweet and still richer than most of the milk sold, can be had at one-half the regular price of whole milk, and which requires no fixing whatever. This milk is now used largely by many persons, and they affirm what is said as to its comparative quality. The principal reason why milk does not agree with many people is because it comes from bad material and is unwholesome, but those same per- sons will give the milk their stomachs refuse to their children and expect them to thrive on it. SOUR AND TAINTED MILK. Many persons are not aware of the extreme del- icacy of milk or the importance of giving it partic- ular attention. Milk vessels should never be used 19 more than once without first washing them thor- oughly with strong, clean soap suds and a brush, and then well rinsed and scalded in boiling water and dried in the sun. The least particle of old, sour or stale milk left in the can will sour new milk immediately. Milk should be kept at from 60 to 70 degrees of heat, and away from all matter that gives forth any odor, especially from any ma- larious matter, as no better agents exist to carry poison to the blood than milk and cream. Cream will not rise readily in either hot or cold weather; the temperature must be equable; and many house- wives and servants declare milk to be poor because they do not always get the same quantity of cream for the same time of setting. In cold weather it may take forty-eight hours for all the cream to rise that may be had in twelve hours in a proper temperature, and in hot weather milk will sour before much of the cream will rise. There is no product in use by the human family whose purity is more essential and yet so difficult to obtain as pure wholesome milk. DISEASED MILK. Few people are aware of the danger of contract- ing diseases from the milk of cows that are dis- eased. Cows have consumption, pneumonia, con- gestion of the lungs, and most all of the complaints that the human family are subject to, and the mu- nicipal authorities ought to require a rigid inspec- tion monthly of all the cows and the feed and wa- 20 ter they consume, and from which milk is furnish- ed for the city. The consumptive cow's cough is almost human, and any person may detect it by remaining in the yard with them a few moments. Is it possible that a healthy child can be raised on a consumptive's milk ? [Under the Microscope.] FIG. i. Sample of one cow's milk, furnished a sick child in Chicago as pure. Cows are much more likely to become diseased in the city yards, on such defective food as is gen- erally given them, than in the country; besides, the lack of good air, water and exercise, soon leaves them effeminate, and an easy prey to the many disorders they are liable to. Cows are known to have lost the use of their teeth by the use of [Under the Microscope.] distillery slops within two years; after which such animals would starve in the country on natural food. Most milkmen are too poor to promptly discard a sickly cow, as their own living may de- fend on the sale of her milk. 22 [Under the Microscope.] o o FIG. 4. Distillery Swill Milk two hours after milking. [Under the Microscope.] FIG. 5. From Brewery Slops. Prof. R. U. Piper says: "it is impossible to discover any difference in the appearance of the two kinds of milk, from the Brewers' leavings, or the Distilleries. ,'5*70720 24 Delivery Price List. To regular customers for the year 1880-81, com- mencing July 1, 1880. No pint deliveries. 1 quart daily, per month, $3 00 6 quarts, $12 60 3 pints " " 4 00 7 " 14 30 2 quarts " 5 00 8 " 16 00 3 quarts " " 7 00 9 " 17 80 4 quarts " 9 00 10 " 19 60 5 quarts " 10 80 11 " 21 40 One can daily of 3 gallons, 75 cents each, $22 50 Two deliveries daily will be $1 per month extra. Ten cans daily, or more, 65 cents each. 1 quart pastry cream, 50 cents; 1 quart table cream, 40 cents. PRICES AT CITY DEPOT, 837 HOWARD STREET. 10 cans or more, daily, 60 cents each. Buttermilk, 5 cents per quart, or 35 cents for three-gallon can. Sweet skimmed milk, 5 cents per quart; half of the cream off, 35 cents per can. Sour skimmed milk, per can, 20 cents. Any dissatisfaction should be reported immedi- ately to Superintendent G-. A. Barnett, 837 How- ard street, San Francisco. EX LIBRIS SAN nARKOS I/CS!) ROBERT ERNEST COWAN This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 5m-6,'41(3644) UNIVERSITY OF r \LIFORNIA AT LOS ANGLES LIBRARY SF 232 C2J4 A 001 138 336 1