EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 525 



While "over stocks" or sur[)liJS(!S may come at any time in the milJk 

 business owing to the contract niethod of jnirchase, the spring surplus 

 comes annually and is so large in amount ;is to seriously threaten the 

 entire njilk industry. This si)riiig suri)lus is indeed sure to come further- 

 more because it is tlie result of the wide-spread winter dairy system 

 of herd freshening and of tlie richer and bigger pastures of the early 

 months. Annually, therefore, the dealer finds himself with a large sur- 

 plus of milk which he must sacrifice to the manufacture of low profit 

 by-products, such as butter, milk-powder, cottage cheese, etc. Some of 

 the large distributing plants indeed find an average loss of a half-cent 

 yer quart of milk from this source, and all stand a loss of some amount. 



Many cures have been suggested foi- this evil. The summer freshening 

 of herds has often been spoken of as a possible remedy. Lactation would 

 then, of course, stop during tlie spring surplus period and the fall milk 

 shortage would be lieljjed witli more summer-freshened herds. On the 

 other hand this would llirow milk ^iroduction into the wrong season 

 for the farmer owing to his heavy summer labor schedule, his poor 

 summer pastures and the bother of insect pests. No farmer would find 

 it profitable, therefore, to undertake summer dairying and thus check the 

 spring milk surplus unless a sufficiently high price were offered him to 

 pay for the extra costs. 



Another remedy is that of whetting demand at the surplus times by 

 much advertising. This seems wholly practicable if done jointly by the 

 dealers and producers for a given city. A union of both these groups 

 in this way makes a monopoly, and any benefits from advertising by 

 such a unit would fall upon no one but its own members. The great 

 expen.se of advertising and the satiety point in milk demand are seem- 

 ingly the only checks to this plan. 



THE DETROIT MILK SUPPLY. 



The milk sheds or farming areas from which cities secure their milk 

 supplies are extremely variable in size and in permanence. This shed so 

 far as Detroit is concerned is markedly unbalanced since, owing to the 

 nearby Canadian boundary, no milk is shipped from the east into this 

 city. On the other hand some milk supplies from the northwest travel 

 many scores of miles, though it is probable that the average distance 

 covered is not more than fifty miles. Appreciable quantities of milk 

 furthermore neitlier originate within the city itself nor even near enough 

 for profitable delivery by the farmer producer. 



Within the country area supplying Detroit, milk is sold in general by 

 the specialized farmer to whom dairying is the main task though a rela- 

 tively small part is still had from the general farmer to whom dairying 

 is a side line. The membership rolls of the Michigan Milk Producers' 

 Association show a list of 8,000 farmers who are producing milk for the 

 Detroit market. The equipment, generally speaking, of a milk-producing 

 farm besides the herd and barns consists of a milk-house or cooling-room 

 with a supidy of ice, milking pails, aerator and the 10-gallon milk cans. 

 Dairy barns must comply with certain rules as to light and air, while 

 equipment is scored high or low according as it is well designed and 

 cleanly. 



The Detroit milk .shed, one-sided though it is as the result of boundary 



