530 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



All of these rivalling forces were active upon tlie Detroit milk shed, 

 and played their part in fixing milk prices. 



The matter of distance from market is more under control than that 

 of competition, and therefore, the dealers ahvays fix an orderly scale 

 of distances or "zones" in which deductions from the city price wull be 

 made in order to cover costs of transportation. Thus by way of illus- 

 tration, for distances between 1 and 25 miles, 15 cents discount is allowed; 

 25 to 30 miles, 20 cents, etc. These deductions are frequently shifted as 

 railroad charges go up or down. 



Price stability both of retail prices and also of those per hundred- 

 weight is an indispensable condition in the milk business. The con- 

 sumer likes price uniformity in millc because it saves him the trouble 

 of daily bargaining for this necessity. Like his gas bill or water tax 

 he knows before hand what his milk outlays will total and this helps 

 in xjlauning the household budget. Between the producer and the dis- 

 tributor stable or uniform prices are equally essential since the rela- 

 tions between these two are fixed by contract and naturally no contracts 

 could be written if daily shifting prices were the rule. 



WAR AND MILK PRODUCTION. 



The almost immediate effect upon milk production coming from the 

 war was the great rise in production costs which grew out of the alarm- 

 ing increases in the prices of feeds and dairy equipments during this 

 time. Partly on account of the greater direct demand for animal feed 

 caused by the war and partly as a sympathetic result from the increased 

 demands for human food, which the war brought about, cattle feed and 

 supplies of every sort became ruinously expensive. The world's stock 

 of nutritives was indeed almost depleted and cattle feed prices soared. 

 Milk per ton and feed per ton were soon selling at the same price in 

 many places. 



The losses from low milk prices and high milk production costs sufifered 

 by the dairyman during tliis period are well shoAvn by a table covering 

 two years made by the Dairy Department of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College which is as follows : 



