Green Pastures, Contented Cows, and Raw Dairy Foods
by Ron Schmid, ND
Copyright 2003
Ch 1, 2 - Milk and Civilization, Bovine Friends in Early America
Basically, milk has been a part of civilization, ever since mankind starting herding animals in the very earliest days after God put man in dominion over the earth and all of its other life forms (Genesis 1:26). Many historical documents and ancient artifacts (with dried remnants of milk) indicate the importance of dairy in old civilizations. Throughout the historical documentation of many cultures and world religions, milk and butter are represented with great importance (in poems, verse, and songs). Abraham, in Genesis 18:8, prepares a calf and serves it along side of "curds and milk." The land promised to the Israelites, after their wanderings in the wilderness, was promised to be a land flowing with milk and honey. Prophecy about the coming Lord Jesus states: "He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good." Isaiah 7:15 There are other references to milk in the Bible as well.
As a little side note here, one of the greatest quotes about food in general is attributed to Hippocrates: "Let food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food." I think as we progress through this book, we will find this statement about the power of food to be more and more true (especially in light of some documentation of a Greek physician named Galen- he recorded the story of a many who lived more than 100 years on raw milk alone; there is no indication in this book, though, as to the source of this man's milk- bovine or other).
Did you know that cows saved the Jamestown, Plymouth, and New Amsterdam colonies in early America? It's true! Jamestown, established in 1606 with infusions of several hundreds of settlers was down to 60 people by 1610. The new deputy governor, Sir Thomas Dale, arrived that year with more settlers and cows. Folks weren't used to treating cattle very well according to European custom, but Dale changed that, making sure the cows were grazed well, protected (in the first barn built for dairy cattle in the colony), and provided with additional feed when necessary. He returned to England in 1616, and over the following years, the settlers returned to their roughshod ways of treating cattle. It was common for cattle to die of exposure and starvation during the winters. In 1620, the Virginia Company started supplying a small head of cattle to emigrants, and by 1629, the bovine population had flourished and cows became valuable as the cottage industry of dairying began.
The Pilgrims, who had set sail for Jamestown, missed their mark by several hundred miles, landing without any cows in November of 1620. Over half of the settlers died during the first winter. By Spring of 1624, the settlement received its first shipment of cows from England. The Pilgrims began to flourish with the presence of cattle, and took care of their herds. The Massachusetts Bay Company was formed, which considered cows to be an essential element of survival.
The arrival of 110 Dutch settlers occurred in 1624, when they landed on Governor's Island in New York Harbor. They came with everything needed to farm (equipment and cows included), and no one from that group starved. In 1639 the Dutch government encouraged migration to this new colony by promising free pasturage, livestock, a house, barn, and implements for farming to immigrants. New York became the center of colonial dairying for the next three hundred years. The Dutch colonist was known (or stereotyped) as "John Cheese." In Dutch, this is Jan Kaas, the origin of the word, Yankee!
Cows were a prized dairy animal, known for a more cooperative temperament, the ability to produce large volumes of milk, and the versatility of the milk itself (cream, butter, ghee, clabber milk, etc.). "The dairy cow doesn't ask for much but she asks every day. People creating wealth with a cow are either hard working and dependable or they become that way in a hurry" (quoted from the Family Cow, by Joann S. Grohman).
Cows were being settled in the East, while at the same time they were thriving in the western area of the new nation, thanks to Spanish settlements on the West Coast. The nation was exporting about a 100,000 pounds of cheese every year, and one million pounds of butter by the early 1790's. Ninety percent of the population of three million lived on farms and plantations (the city of New York had a whopping 33,000 people); the cattle population was estimated at 18,000,000.
Remember, "cows fed mostly or entirely on grass and hay, and milk and its products were pure and healthy" (pg 29).
"When you have a cow, you have it all." William Cobbett
