152 AGRICUWURE OF MAINE. 



last decade. This increase has been brought about by a general 

 advance in the prices which go to make up the cost of produc- 

 tion. The cost has also been increased by a general demand for 

 a cleaner and more wholesome article produced under more sani- 

 tary conditions. The first item has only kept pace with a 

 general advance in food products while the second item has 

 been found necessary as a protection to the public health, 

 in which the consumer has received the benefits. It is perhaps 

 unfortunate that modern health regulations have imposed addi- 

 tional burdens on the producer of milk at a time when a gen- 

 eral advance in the price of his product was necessary since it 

 has tended to further increase this advance. At the same time 

 consumers of milk are receiving a just protection from such 

 regulations and they should be willing to pay the extra cost for 

 producing milk under such superior conditions. It can not be 

 denied that the requirements of health boards have increased 

 the cost of production but they have undoubtedly increased the 

 actual value of the milk from a hygienic standpoint many times 

 over. Therefore, it seems to me that consumers of milk should 

 give careful consideration to the cost of providing for this 

 protection and if it can be proven, as I believe it can, that the 

 producer is not getting an unreasonable price for a safe product, 

 that there should be no objection on their part to the increase 

 which has been asked. 



Competent men who have studied milk production have found 

 that it costs about 4 1-2 cents per quart to produce milk that 

 meets the usual requirements with a herd of average cows. 

 Distributors of milk have shown that the cost of transporting, 

 bottling and delivering a quart of milk in our large cities is 

 practically the same amount. On this basis then the cost of 

 producing, handling and marketing milk in the centers of popu- 

 lation amounts to about 9 cents per quart for milk of usual 

 quality. An investigation made by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture the last week in June, IQIO, showed that the average price 

 paid by the consumer of milk in 78 of the large cities and 

 towns of the United States was almost exactly 8 cents per 

 quart. In the Northern Atlantic and Northern Central states 

 it was 7.5 cents ; in the Western states 8.9 cents ; in the Southern 

 Central states 9.1 cents and in the South Atlantic states 9.3 



