DAIRY MKETING. 145 



Just why there has been no rapid increase in price of milk 

 and why it now becomes an economic problem for a man ot 

 brains to produce milk with profit is easily understood. We 

 know that lack of method and hit-or-miss slack dairying have 

 been practiced from the beginning on the majority of dairy 

 farms. 



Lack of attention to details, without any thought of the 

 future, has been the condition of our dairy industry until only 

 a few years ago. Now that there is more demand for a clean, 

 wholesome product that cannot be produced with profit under 

 the past slack methodless way, we find men left with a herd of 

 cows on their hands which are losing them money, but who 

 continue selling their milk sometimes at 3 1-2 to 4 1-2 cents 

 a quart at wholesale for want of a better occupation ; trusting 

 to the other products of the farm to bring them an existence. 



Undoubtedly dairy conditions would have continued under 

 the old regime if it were not for competition of substitutes and 

 it is to these that we must owe in a certain degree the lack of 

 advance in milk. Prices were suppressed at the beginning by 

 careless, slack attention to an all important product, resulting in 

 no corresponding advance in price as with other farm products 

 and we now find the dairyman's problem confronting him and 

 the grain farmers of the Middle West prosperous. 



Many dairymen are at a loss to know why the consuming 

 public does not readily yield to their demand for higher wages. 

 City people who have paid from 6 to 7 cents a quart for the 

 past dozen or more years fail to understand and wonder why 

 such a demand is made. The excuse usually is that "Grain is 

 higher." That is very true, as a reference to the advance in 

 prices of farm products will confirm. 



The number of oleomargarine dealers is 704 in Maine, 234 

 in New Hampshire, and 19 in Vermont. 



The evaporated milk output of the United States increased 

 154 per cent and the condensed milk output 6 per cent fluring 

 the five years 1905-1910, showing that these products are being 

 used in a large degree. 



Only a few years ago grain was comparatively cheap and 

 dairymen drifted into the extravagant method of feeding dairy 

 cows on a ration composed largely of concentrates. Higher 



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