E6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 6,1984
It’s always worth while to note
important milestones in
agricultural history. Such is the
case with the topic of today’s
column - the glass milk bottle. It’s
a hundred years old this year. No
matter that during the past cen
tury the glass milk bottle was
invented, accepted, rose to con
siderable prominance and has just
about disappeared. You’ll see
more glass milk bottles in the
Delaware Agricultural Museum
than on any Delaware milk route
and if you’ll look closely at that
museum collection you’ll see the
names of dozens of Delaware
dairies, that at one time bottled
and delivered their own milk, that
don’t even exist anymore.
Actually the first glass milk
container was patented in 1878.
Known as the Lester milk jar it
was a glass container with a
rubber gasket and a thumb screw
holding down a glass cover. But the
first real bottle that was nationally
available was patented by Dr.
Hervey Thatcher of Potsdan, New
York in 1884. Thatcher who was a
druggist and an inventor worked to
develop a total system in milk
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
handling. He also invented a
number of other milk handling
items that aided in keeping milk
clean during the filling process.
The early Thatcher quart bottles
were 10 inches high and 4 inches in
diameter and carried the words
“Absolutely Pure Milk The Milk
Protector.” There was also an
illustration of a Quaker milking a
cow on the front of the bottle.
In the early days milk bottles
were available in a variety of
colors and sizes and with some
truly ingenious closures. The
Thatcher bottle had a small mouth
and a short neck. And it was
gradually modified to lower the
cream line since lots of cream was
the style in those days.
The dairy business was very
different then with small dairymen
operating their own processing
plants and delivery routes. They
sold raw milk, unpasteurized with
nothing added, door to door. Some
even sold butter, eggs and other
farm produce. Back then there
were no supermarkets and the
daily delivery of a few quarts of
milk to each household was ex
pected. Refrigeration wasn’t very
far along in the early part of the
century and milk cleanliness
wasn’t that good either. Con-
sequently, the smart homemaker
- bought only a few quarts daily -
usually the amount her family
could be expected to consume
before the delivery truck came
again.
In the rural neighborhood of my
boyhood days there were three
“Grade A” dairies within walking
distance. Each had what was
considered a large dairy herd of
about 30 cows, a complete milk
i bottling plant and one or more
delivery trucks. Each day they
I would pass our farm gate on the
way to or from their deliveries in
the nearby city. There were
literally dozens of those small
dairies serving a town of 30 or 40
thousand people. The glass milk
bottle was the heart of the
business. Each company had its
own trade mark, some painted,
others molded into the glass with
colorful farm names like Twin
Elms, Grand View, Sunnyside,
Mapledale, and so on.
The old folks who were raised in
the city can reminisce fondly about
the horse drawn delivery vans,
before my time incidentally, that
plodded down the streets in the
early morning light with the gently
old horse stopping at all the right
places and moving forward at just
the right time without any signal
from the driver. Most times the
driver would load his carrying
case with bottles of milk and move
door to door down the street until it
was empty. Meanwhile the horse
would plod along unassisted
stopping at just the right place for
resupplying.
MUk wasn’t always pasteurized,
homogenized and supplemented
with Vitamin D. In those days raw
milk was all that was available.
The breed of cows the dairyman
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kept determined the amount of
pure cream in the upper part of the
bottle. Some dairies even used
cream separator bottles to make it
easier for the housewives to pour
off the cream. These had a
pronounced dent at the bottom of
the neck. And some companies
offered special little spoons that
would fit down in the bottle to trap
the milk so the cream could be
poured off easily. Now those
bottles and the spoons are
collectors’ items.
Sure there are still a few die hard
dairies delivering door to door in
glass bottles but the heyday of the
glass bottle has come and gone.
For a half century it was the
primary container for all milk
sales and then came supermarkets
and the need for one way bottles.
Disposable paperboard cartons
and plastic containers were the
answer. Fifty years ago virtually
100 percent of the milk that was
sold went into glass bottles. Today
they have all but disappeared. The
most recent survey shows that
paper is used for 42 percent of all
milk packages. Plastic molded
containers account for 57 percent.
Another big change in the milk
industry has been in the size of the
container. The original glass bottle
held a quart of milk. Then some
half gallon bottles came along and
then disappeared. Recent in
formation shows no more than 5
percent of milk sales in quart
containers, and more than half the
milk sold is packaged in gallon
containers. That figures when you
consider current life styles-fewer
trips to the store, more and better
refrigeration and changes in milk
processing and packaging. The
newest development, ultra heat
treated milk, has a shelf life of 3 to
6 months. Although not completely
acceptable to consumer tastes it is
Model 24RC
no doubt the direction of the futu
If you long for the good old day.
of milk bottles and delivery trucQ
then visit the DelawarJ
Agricultural Museum. There is an
interesting and rather complex
display on the subject. Virtual]!
every Delaware dairy that eve?
had its own bottle is represented ujj
the collection. ]
It may be worth while toj
reminisce about the history of tb?
milk bottle and perhaps long for
the good old days of door to door
delivery and that World War a
song “Milk Man Keep Those
Bottles Quiet.” But it’s really
what’s inside the container that
counts and today’s milk is or at
least can be a better product.’
Technology has improved on
nature’s most perfect food.
Today’s milk products are pure,
fresh and well packaged. There’s
no question they’re better than
ever.
It will be interesting to watch the
upcoming milk promotion cam
paign. It’s financed by dairji
farmer dollars and aimed at exl
pending the milk market. Millions
of dollars will be spent to convince!
consumers of something the/
should already know - that milk u
good for you and a much better
choice than all of those otheij
beverages. As the slogan says iti
“Fitness You Can Drink.” 1
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THINK AHEAD...
Read Futures Markets on Page 3.
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Mill Hall, PA SUPPLY
717-726-3115 Dover, PA
Centre Hall. PA 717-292-2631 or
814-364-1421 717-292-4443
ERNEST SHOVER SHUEY SALES
FARM EQUIP. & SERVICE
Carlisle, PA Qno, PA
717-249-2239 717-865-4915
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