The evening world. Newspaper, June 9, 1921, Page 13

MANHATTAN STREET NEAR BROADWAY MULAN t ye sty ti el Mt \ WEBSTER AVENUE AT 166th ST.. BRONX 524 w 544. W 57h ST MANHATTAN No $25 W 125th STREET MANHATTAN Ns No 458. TENTH AVENUE MANHATTAN WSN Gey L. PB rom One Milk Wagon to the Greatest Institution of Its Kind I WERE to say to ‘you that New York has the best equipped milk handling institution in the world, you would probably say “Why not? New York should have the best.’’ I agree with you, and New York has the most modern, the most complete and the most efficient milk pasteurizing and distributing organization in the world. I know this because I have made it my business to know what the world is doing in the milk business. Both here and in Europe I have studied milk distribut‘on, and I know that nowhere else can you find a group of plants devoted to milk handling such as Sheffield Farms has constructed in New York City. Your knowledge of Sheffield is probably confined to the fact that they bring good milk to your door. That their service and the products bearing the Sheffield label are always dependable. But back of these things there is a great organization, operating a system of marvelously efficient plants that makes it possible to give you Sheffield quality and to provide a service we believe to be un- paralleled. As it exists today, this business is the result of 80 years of as hard work as any group of mef ever put into a job. With the knowledge of what others were doing, we have aimed and striven to do better. * In the building of these plants (shown on this page) we have physical evidence of this aim. In the history of the transition of milk service, from the old slip-shod methods of days gone by to the safe, clean, efficient methods of today, with its tremendous influence for good on the health of the community, particularly in the constant lowering of the infant mortality rate, you have an indelible record of the soundness of the Sheffield policies and the far-reaching effect of Sheffield vision. This business began in 1841 when T. W. Decker opened the first dairy of its kind in New York City. He shipped milk by fail from farms which he personally inspected. His success was assured from the start. His methods were new. Business flocked to him. Some years later, Slawson Brothers came into the field. They ‘brought with them advanced ideas on service and quality, and found a ready response to the'r appeals for patronage. Later on, a country lawyer, L. B. Halsey, who brought to the city on his tri-weekly trips a small supply of fine butter, made by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Sheffield, at Sheffield Farm in North Jersey, be gan to ship and distribute fresh milk. He built his firat creamery in the Catskills. Like T. W. Decker and Slawson Brothers he found a ready sale for his products. His Sheffield Selected Milk became famous as the Milk of Quality. The name of his concern was “Sheffield Farms” and I believe I can say, without danger of contradiction, that we have made for this name a reputation second to none in the milk world. These three concerns operated individually up to 1902. It then became obvious that to carry out the gigantic plans ‘necessary to modernize milk distribution, greater strength and greater resources than either one of them possessed were needed. They decided to join forces This consolidation was consummated in 1902. The new enterprise was known as Sheffield Farms-Slawson-Decker Company. This, bow- ever, has recently been shortened to Sheffield Farms Company, Inc The new enterprise prospered. It grew at a pace unheard of in the milk industry. Five yeare after its incorporation it saw the completion of the first of the big Sheffield plants. This building, at 524 West 57th Street, is the first modern pasteurizing plant ever constructed. It revolutionized the entire process of milk handling. It made milk a safe food for babies as well as adults. It marked as distinct an ad vance in milk distribution as the Declaration of Independence marked in the development of human liberty. This 57th Street plant was opened in the face of a storm of official protest that almost wrecked our plans. Six years later the city of New York put its official seal on these plans and proceeded to compel all other dealers to follow our methods. The result has been to give New York City the best milk supply in the world. It has saved thousands of precious lives and set the pace for progressive milk distributers everywhere. Next came the big Manhattan Street plant that you see from the Manhattan Street Viaduct. Then the Bronx plant at 166th S' Webster Avenue, and recently the Brooklyn plant at Fultc near Nostrand Avenue. In the construction of these buildings and in the equipment of them we had no models to go by. We employed the best engineering talent we could find and designed and built the equipment ourselves When they were going up, our friends looked at these plants with du- bious eyes and questioned our sanity because of the size of the in- vestment put into them. Now when anybody wants to build a milk plant he comes to look at Sheffield’s. When London wanted to get in line on sanitary milk handling it looked over the American systerns and then borrowed the Sheffield engineers and Sheffield blueprints. We lent them gladly. In addition to the big four, we have the auxiliary plants at 458 Tenth Avenue, at 525 West 125th Street and at 535 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn. To keep these plants supplied with milk we operate 84 country stations where milk is received from farmers and then transshipped to New York. To distribute our daily output, 1,500 motor trucks and wagons are required. An impressive aggregation. The longer I live with it, the more interesting it becomes to me. I have tried here to enable you to visualize the equipment neces- sary to properly handle your milk supply. To enable you to under- stand how we make more’ than 300,000 deliveries before breakfast. To show you how more than half a million quarts of milk can be suc- cessfully handled each day. The limitations of this page make it impossible to convey an ade- quate impression of the size, character and complexities of our busi- ness. But if you are interested, we would be glad to have you visit these plants, see them at close range and get an intimate view of what modern milk handling and distribution involves. LOTON HORTON, President Sheffield Farms Co., Inc. New York {i wer ) |, A TYPICAL COUNTRY }} WE OWN and | 1 PLANT =) | OPERATE 84 OF THEM | |