Borden is a Commercial Hit

Condensed milk quickly became a commercial success.  Borden obtained financial support from a wealthy New York City grocer he met on the train and founded the New York Condensed Milk Company in 1858.  The first large scale milk condensing plant gave farmers a place to bring their milk to be condensed before market.

Borden's first advertisement:
"Borden's Condensed Milk: prepared in Litchfield County, Connecticut, is the only milk ever concentrated without the mixture of sugar or other substance, remaining easily soluble in water.  It is simply Fresh Country Milk from which the water is nearly all evaporated, nothing added.  The Committee of the Academy of Medicine recommends it is: 'an article that, for purity, durability, and economy is hitherto unequaled in the annals of the Milk Trade.'  One quart, by the addition of water makes 2 1/2 quarts, equal to cream, 5 quarts rich milk and 7 quarts good milk.  For Sale at 173 Canal Street, or delivered at dwellings in New York and Brooklyn at 25 cents a quart."

At the time of Borden's ad, the newspapers were reporting high infant mortality rates due to "filthy milk."  Milk was commonly distributed in the city as "swill milk" because it came from city cows fed on distiller's swill - the residue from distilleries.  This milk containing no butterfat and its blue color was artificially colored.  In addition it was transported in the same wagons as manure.

Along came Borden's sanitary fresh milk product which increased New York milk routes.  A new standard of cleanliness and quality by Borden sent inspectors to the farms producing his milk, and instruction was required of those farmers as well.  He followed humane practices for his cows, kept clean barns, clean udders, and separated manure from any milking operations.  Milk that arrived under 58 degrees was not accepted. 

Although it seemed to complicate the life of the farmer, it turned them into wholesale dairy farmers who no longer had to peddle their milk on the streets.  Farmer who contracted with Borden and kept his standards with regard to their cows and delivery, were guaranteed a steady check from Borden's company.

Next time...the war years
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 27, 1869,  Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok proves too wild for Kansas.  Just after midnight, Ellis County Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy respond to a report that a local ruffian named Samuel Strawhun and several drunken buddies were tearing up John Bitter's Beer Saloon in Hay's City Kansas. Hickok ordered the men to stop, shooting Strawhun dead.  In the election that November, the people decided that Wild Bill used too aggressive means to uphold the law and elected his deputy to succeed him as sheriff.