Josh Vanderport, age 11, of Middletown, Ohio, for his question:
WHEN DID PEOPLE START RAISING DAIRY CATTLE?
Ancient people were the first to use animal milk for food. History tells us that the citizens in ancient Babylon, Egypt and India started raising dairy cattle as early as 4000 B.C.
In those ancient days, the family cow was the chief source of milk. An owner would use as much milk as he needed for his family and then would trade or sell the rest to neighbors.
The practice of owning a family cow was a common tradition for many thousands of years. In fact, the practice is still common today in many parts of the world.
Use of the family cow was especially common during colonial times in America. But by 1850, many United States farmers had begun to own several dairy cows and to supply milk to nearby homes.
With the growth of cities, many local laws prohibited keeping cows within city limits. Farmers outside the cities then started to increase the size of their herds and to establish dairy businesses.
As the dairy industry grew, several cities passed laws to control the sale of milk. Some of these laws made it illegal to add water to milk or to remove cream from~it. Boston in 1856 was the first city to pass such a law.
None of the early laws, unfortunately, set health standards for milk. Many dairies added chemical preservatives to milk. But after some of these chemicals were found to be harmful, laws prohibited their use. Gradually,. cities and states began supervising the milk industry in order to protect the public health.
In 1856, American inventor Gail Borden received a patent for the first successful milk condensing process.
About 1885, dairies first used glass jars and bottles, which workers filled by hand. The invention of a bottling machine in 1886 made filling the containers easier and faster.
In 1890, American agricultural chemist Stephen Babcock developed a test to measure the fat content of milk.
In the 1890s, a few dairy plants introduced pasteurization, a process that destroys certain microorganisms in milk. The process was invented by French scientist Louis Pasteur.
Homogenizers gradually came into use after 1900.
Since the mid 1900s, many new milk processing devices and methods have been developed. They have helped make possible today's large, modern dairies.
The leading milk producing state in the U.S. is Wisconsin. California and New York come in second and third. Other leading states and provinces include Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Ontario, Michigan, Ohio and Iowa.
Every state in the U.S. and every Canadian province produces milk.
There are more than 5,000 dairy plants in the U.S. today with about half the plants producing fluid milk. The rest of the plants make other milk products.