100 years ago: Local dairymen not in compliance with milk ordinance, inspector says

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Aug. 27, 1915:

  • “The time has come for a more decided stand on the part of the city in regard to the enforcement of the recently passed milk ordinance and unless the milkmen comply with the ordinance in a hurry prosecutions are going to follow, according to a statement by Milk Inspector Holyfield this morning. ‘A number of dairymen aren’t branding their bottle caps with the non-T.B. tested label, as prescribed by the city law,’ the inspector said this morning, ‘and I am going to have to take some decisive action. It seems that the men aren’t taking this law seriously enough and it is up to me to convince them that it is a serious matter and that it must be complied with. Some of them haven’t even taken out their licenses yet and the ordinance provides a penalty for this failure which we are going to enforce. There are several dairymen selling milk in Lawrence who needn’t be surprised if they are summoned to appear in court soon. The law isn’t going to be any respecter of persons.’… Another inspection of the dairies will be made by the inspector soon, and if he doesn’t find them in a satisfactory condition, trouble is going to follow.'”
  • “Next Monday all the janitors of the public school buildings will begin to put the premises in order for the beginning of school. Debris from repairs will be removed, and a great deal of scrubbing and sweeping done, drains examined, yards cleared of trash, broken windows mended, and other preparations made.”
  • “The strength of the local wheat market, considering the demoralizing influences of nature for the past several months, and the confessedly still more demoralizing industrial conditions, is surprising. In some instances even No. 4 soft wheat is bringing a No. 2 and No. 3 price, though such is exceptional and due to exceptional causes. But the lowest priced No. 4 – sprouted, chipped and dirty, is in no instance bringing the grower less than 80 cents. There is no No. 1 and very little No. 2 grown locally this year. At the Bowersock, which does not buy soft wheat and so affords no local market, Turkey Red, No. 2 from beyond the Hutchinson-Salina meridian, is bringing 95 cents. The mill does not handle anything under good No. 2 in quality, and only hard wheat…. Mr. W. D. Gwin remarked a fact in wheat raising about which little is ever said, though it is an old, and not uncommon phenomenon. The very finest quality of Turkey Red, hard as gravel and perfectly clean, has been brought from the high plains of western Kansas and planted in the eastern part of the state – frequently in Douglas county. There is no trouble getting it to grow and yield. The first year’s product from the plains-grown seed is a fair quality of Turkey Red. The second year’s product is soft and friable by comparison with the original stock and the first year’s crop. After that the very best that is ever produced from this hard wheat stock is soft wheat outright. In three generations it has lost practically every characteristic of hard wheat and cannot compete as hard wheat with hard wheat from the West at all. The exact facts are that this is not a hard wheat country and cannot be made one by any construction of the facts and constitution. The soils down here are essentially different, and there is too much moisture.”