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Europe's Contribution to the American Dairy Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Everett E. Edwards
Everett E. Edwards
Affiliation:
Washington, D.C.
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Extract

IN recent years much has been said and written about milk as the most nearly perfect of all modern foods, but it is important to realize that it is also the most venerable of human nutriments. Its use began long before recorded history, and it has continued throughout the ages to be a staple part of the human diet. Man's making friends with the lactating animals, such as the cow and the goat, was a significant step in the advancement of human nutrition and therefore of civilization as well. Butter and cheese proved to be important ways of preserving the food values of milk, and their invention, though probably accidental in both instances, was an important contribution to human nutrition. In the long history of dairying, custom and accidental discovery have probably been more important than conscious experimentation and innovation.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 9 , Supplement S1 , 1949 , pp. 72 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1949

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References

1 For interesting details concerning the place of dairy products in prelitcrate and ancient times, see Crumbine, Samuel J. and Tobey, James A., The Most Nearly Perfect Food (Bald-more: Williams & Wilkins Co., 1929), pp. 55–80Google Scholar.

2 On this heritage, see Prentice, E. Parmalee, “Type in the History of Dairy Cattle,” Nineteenth Century and After, CIX (1931), 698–711Google Scholar.

3 The data on this subject are summarized in Bowling, G. A., “The Introduction of Cattle into Colonial North America,” Journal of Dairy Science, XXV (1942), 129–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 For a noteworthy survey of this subject, see Loehr, Rodney C., “The Influence of English Agriculture on American Agriculture, 1775–1825,” Agricultural History, XL (1937). 3–15Google Scholar.

5 On the history of the importation and dispersal of “improved breeds,” see Leavitt, Charles T., “Attempts to Improve Cattle Breeds in the United States, 1790–1860,” Agricultural History, VII (1933), 51–67Google Scholar; and George F. Lemmer, “The Spread of Improved Cattle Through the Eastern United States to 1850,” ibid., XXI (1947), 79-93.

6 These six breeds are singled out for attention in the United States Department of Agriculture's bulletin on the subject See Nystrom, Amer B., Dairy Cattle Breeds (Farmers' Bulletin No. 1443; Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, 1938)Google Scholar.

7 For details see the three books by Prentice, E. Parmalce, Breeding Profitable Dairy Cattle (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1935)Google Scholar. American Dairy Cattle: Their Pott and Future (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1942)Google Scholar, and The History of Channel Island Cattle (Williamstown, Mass.: Mount Hope Farm, 1940)Google Scholar.

8 Edwards, Everett E., “American Indian Contributions to Civilization,” Minnesota History, XV (1934), 255–72Google Scholar.

9 The history of the development and utilization of grasslands in the United States is outlined in Edwards, Everett E., “The Settlement of Grasslands,” Grass (Yearbook of Agriculture; Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, 1948) pp. 16–25Google Scholar.

10 Piper, Charles V. and Boit, Kathcrine S., “Early Agricultural History of Timothy,” Journal of the American Society of Agronomy, VII (1915), 1–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lyman Carrier and Katherine S. Bort, “The History of Kentucky Blue Grass and White Clover in the United States,” ibid., VIII (1916), 256-66.

11 For details, see Edwards, Everett E. and Russell, Horace H., “Wendelin Grimm and Alfalfa,” Minnesota History, XIX (1938), 21–33Google Scholar.

12 For data pertaining to the history of silos, see United States Department of Agriculture, Silos and Ensilage: A Record of Practical Tests in Several States and Canada (Special Report No. 48; Washington, D. C., 1882)Google Scholar; and Carrier, Lyman, “The History of the Silo,” Journal of the American Society of Agronomy, XII (1920), 175–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 The early history of the cream separator and its introduction into the United States is traced in Christensen, Thomas P., “The First Cream Separator,” Hoard's Dairyman, LXXXIV (1939). 338Google Scholar. See also Ivins, Lester Sylvan and Winship, Albeit Edward, Fifty Famous Farmers (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1924), pp. 13–20Google Scholar; and McDowell, J. C., “Carl Gustaf Patrik DeLaval,” in The Ten Master Minds of Dairying (Des Moines, Iowa: Meredith Publishing Co., 1930). PP. 29–33Google Scholar.

14 For details concerning Haecker and Clark's Grove, see Edwards, Everett E., “T. L. Haecker, the Father of Dairying in Minnesota,” Minnesota History, XIX (1938), 148–61Google Scholar.

15 On agriculture in Denmark, 1828-1870, the agricultural revolution there, and the development of its co-operatives, see Jensen, Einar, Danish Agriculture: Its Economic Development (Copenhagen: J. H. Schultz, 1937), pp. 56–60, 158-83, and 315-53Google Scholar.

16 Eberlin, Viggo C., “Julius Moldenhawer: Father of Pasteurization in the United States,” Scandinavia, I, No. 6 (1924), 34–36Google Scholar.

17 Kollmorgen, Walter M., “Immigrant Settlements in Southern Agriculture: A Commentary on the Significance of Cultural Islands in Agricultural History,” Agricultural History, XIX (1945), 69–78Google Scholar.

18 Luchsinger, John, “The History of a Great Industry,” Proceedings of the Wisconsin State Historical Society (1899), pp. 226–30Google Scholar; Emery, John Q., “The Swiss Cheese Industry in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, X (1926), 42–52Google Scholar; and Egan, Richard, Green County, Wisconsin: A History of Agricultural Development (Monroe, Wis.: Monroe Evening Times, 1929)Google Scholar.

19 The summary here given is based on Durand, Loyal Jr, “Italian Cheese Production in the American Dairy Region,” Economic Geography, XXIV (1948), 217–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.