20 Minutes old

I grew up in a small New Hampshire college town in the 1950s. Twice a week a milkman

would come to our house and leave 2 or 3 quarts of milk in a box outside and take away the empties.

It was not uncommon in those days for a modest size dairy to have a pasteurizing and bottling plant that supplied the local market. I would guess that within 10 miles of my house there were at least 15 to 20 family dairy farms of varying sizes.

Jump ahead 40 years and today there may be 5 or 6 family farms in the area, usually milking between 200 and 300 head. Awhile ago I decided I needed to document one of those remaining farms as in all likelihood, even most of those would disappear as well.

These images were taken over a year and half and I would go there at various times of day about 3 times a week. It is Scrutons’ Dairy on the outskirts of Rochester, NH. Art Scruton and his wife Cathy ran the farm with some hired help and Cathy’s 2 sons. .