REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER. 1 5 



salted and canned. It may bear upon its label the picture of a 

 healthy looking baby. It is then shipped to the market and 

 put on the shelves of stores to be sold. Does anyone imagine 

 that this milk's cleanliness and wholesomeness are increased by 

 the different manipulation that it passes through ? 



Creameries. 



It does not usually seem to be understood by the farmers 

 or anyone else in the State of Maine, that the creamery that 

 we used to know, that collected cream and made butter for the 

 market, has almost entirely disappeared, and in its place has 

 arisen a chain of creameries, so-called, that collect milk or 

 cream that is sweet and ship it as such without manufacturing 

 it into butter. There are annually shipped out of the State 

 of Maine between 4,000 and 5,000 cars of milk and cream. 

 During this year two important phases of the milk situation 

 have manifested themselves. The first was when Vermont 

 shippers to Boston asked that a uniform rate be established on 

 milk from the point of origin to the point of destination. The 

 railroads immediately assumed that this was an excellent op- 

 portunity for an increase in the freight rate, and applied to 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission for an increase of their 

 rate on milk and milk products. At once the agricultural socie- 

 ties and the farmers individually interested themselves in this 

 case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, which is now 

 commonly known as the New England Milk Rate Case. The 

 railroads claimed, first, that they needed the money and. second, 

 that milk was not paying its proportionate share of the freight 

 rate. A strenuous opposition was put up by the producers, 

 and both of these propositions were demonstrated to be con- 

 trary to the fact. A study of the situation, however, revealed 

 that it was necessary to change the methods of shipping milk 

 throughout New England to Boston, and also to the other large 

 consuming centers like New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore. 

 Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis. The Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, after making an extensive study of the different 

 conditions prevailing, established a uniform rate, and it is now 

 to be hoped that no advantage lies with anyone along this line, 

 and that farmers can now produce milk with the certainty 



