Cantley 1889 Articles

Milking Money for Medical Bill

Hubert McClelland

From 1929 to 1939 were the Great Depression years - The Dirty Thirties. Many people lost jobs, savings, homes. Unemployment was 30%. There was no health care insurance.

Cantley farmers knew how to survive difficult times with hard work and perseverance.

This is one such story:

During the 1930’s, our Cantley farm’s main income came from selling calves and cattle, slaughter hogs, chickens and possibly some eggs and wood from our bush lot. Its expenses were: digging the basement and foundation under the main house, building a piggery – and paying a $800 medical bill (today’s equivalent: $14,322).

One McClelland story told to me was that, after our great-grandmother Elizabeth Kerr McClelland died in October 1929, there remained $800 owing to Dr. Geggie. Before Elizabeth’s death, he travelled from Wakefield to our farm to treat her incontinence. My grandfather had paid Dr Geggie hundreds of dollars for these house calls. To pay him the remaining $800, my Aunt Margaret claimed she churned cream to make butter to sell at the market. She said it took years to pay off that bill. Dad did not recall exactly how long.

Putting my animal science training to work, I got thinking. How much cream is churned to make $800 worth of butter? A Google search said butter sold for 25 cents a pound in 1930. So, the $800 payment needed 3200 lbs. of butter sold at $0.25 per pound. Since butter is 80% butter fat, 3200 lbs. of butter needed 2560 lbs. of butter fat.

Since our farm at that time was producing milk mainly from pasture from April until late October, the lactation time for cows was probably seven to eight months, about 240 days. In the Dirty 30s there were likely some drought years when pasture production was less. According to records, there was lower than normal rainfall in our region then. No one milked cows in winter if they were fed hay made after July 12th. No grain was available to produce milk. Any oats available were better used to feed marketable hogs or chickens. Therefore, I assume the cow herd fed on grass and hay produced about 18 to 20 lbs. of milk per day.

At that time, the McClelland herd of about 15 cows were part Holstein and Shorthorn. Today Holsteins produce about 3.9% fat. However, the farm’s cream separator did not separate all the fat. It also depended on the adjustment of the cream separator bowl. I remember Dad taking the bowl in hand after washing it to adjust the cream screw with an Allen wrench to improve its ability to separate more cream from the milk. For these reasons, I used 3.5% fat in my calculations.

Number of “cow days” each season to produce 2560 lbs. of BF (butter fat) to make butter:

• One “cow day” at 18 lbs. of milk at 0.035 fat = .63 lbs. of BF per cow per day.
  So, 2560 lbs. of BF/0.63 lbs. of BF per cow per day = 4,063 “cow days” milking.

So, 2560 lbs. of BF/0.63 lbs. of BF per cow per day = 4063 “cow days” milking.

It was possible for Aunt Margaret and the three men on the farm at that time to milk all 15 cows by hand:

• 4063 cow days milking/15 cows = 271 days of milking the herd.
• Assigning 1/3 of the herd to pay the bill each year. Thus 5 cows x 240 days = 1200 cow days of milk per year to produce enough butter to pay $800.
• 4063 “cow days”/1200 “cow days” per year = 3.38 years considering the price of butter and economic conditions of that time.

Now I believe the family story. It did take years. Aunt Margaret worked daily for 3.8 years milking, separating the cream and churning it, to produce 3200 pounds of butter to pay the $800 medical bill.

 

Raw milk from the top reservoir flowed into the spinning bowl inside the separator. The milk spun outward as the lighter cream collected in the centre. The cream was drained from the top spout, the skim milk from the bottom spout.

Barrel churn used by Aunt Margaret. Could take up to 50 lbs of cream. Hand-turned side crank rotated the barrel of cream. Wing nut screw held handles to keep cover tight. Top glass peep window allowed inspection of butter mass forming inside. Before removing the butter, its buttermilk was drained from the bottom plug.

Churned butter was placed in a butter bowl where any remaining buttermilk was worked out by hand with a wooden butter paddle. Salt was added.

For packaging, butter was pressed into a wooden butter mould to shape a “butter loaf”. Butter was often decorated with the imprint of a design carved in the base of the mould or by using a decorative butter press.

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