Excerpt from The Dairy Industry in Missouri and Kansas Not many years ago it was assumed that New England and New York, with perhaps a part of Ohio added, would be able to supply the American demand for dairy products. It was thought that dairying would be mainly confined to the territory indicated, notwithstanding the growth of other sections, because the conditions in the West and South, generally, were deemed so unsuited to this industry as to prevent its extension in those directions. The development of the commercial and manufacturing interests of the East made it soon apparent, however, that the farmers of that region could not supply the demands of its teeming population for food products. Meanwhile emigrants from the Eastern States pushed westward, located in the wooded lands of Ohio and Indiana and on the prairies of Illinois, and then crossed the Mississippi to occupy the fertile lands of the great agricultural basin which includes the States of Missouri and Kansas. Cows came with the settlers and found the natural pasturage and other conditions very favorable to stock raising and milk production. Dairy cattle rapidly increased, and the farmers soon had before them the problem of how to utilize their surplus milk. Eastern demand for butter and cheese was found to increase about as fast, and the recognized "dairy belt" was gradually extended to include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. It was still maintained that south and west of these States dairying could not be successfully pursued. These views were also destined soon to be proved erroneous. It is now safe to assert that a territory of nearly 100,000,000 acres within the limits of Kansas and Missouri offers as great possibilities for dairying as any equal area on the globe. Such possibilities can only become realities through the abandonment of many ideas as to what were once regarded essentials in dairying, as, for example, that flowing spring water and a reliable supply of ice must be had on every dairy farm; that dairying can be made profitable only with permanent pastures and cultivated grasses, and that the dairyman must be near the consuming market. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.