exported their productive Friesian cattle
throughout Europe.
Until industrial times, dairying was done
on the farm, and in many countries mainly by
women, who milked the animals in early
morning and after noon and then worked for
hours to churn butter or make cheese. Country
people could enjoy good fresh milk, but in the
cities, with confined cattle fed inadequately
on spent brewers’ grain, most people saw only
watered-down, adulterated, contaminated milk
hauled in open containers through the streets.
Tainted milk was a major cause of child
mortality in early Victorian times.
Industrial and Scientific Innovations
Beginning around 1830, industrialization
transformed European and American dairying.
The railroads made it possible to get fresh
country milk to the cities, where rising urban
populations and incomes fueled demand, and
new laws regulated milk quality. Steam-