No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGniCULTURE. 557 



COST OF MILK PKODUCTION— Continued 



* By GEORGE ABBOTT, Philadelphia, Pa. 



My tilst-hand contact with the production of market milk ceased 

 nearly forty years ago, but my relation to the subject from the stand- 

 point of the retail dealer has continued, and has afforded ample 

 opportunity for ol)seryation. 



In the tield of butter making, the buying of milk by the fat con- 

 tent, and upon market quotations, etfectually disposes of all ques- 

 tions as to yahies, for the la\y of supply and demand is inexorable, 

 ^"ot so with market milk, and we suppose that it is this that is now 

 Iirimarily under consideration. 



The failure of the corn crop throughout the Tnited States in the 

 year 1907 greatly accentuated the already steadily ascending price 

 of all auinml products, based as they are upon the cost of feed stutfs. 

 Beef, mutton, p(U'k, butter and cheese adyanced in price by leaps and 

 bounds. In Boston, ^s'ew York, Baltimore, Washington and Pitts- 

 burg, the price of milk adyanced somewhat in sympathy with these 

 conditions. This adyance was as natural as the law of grayitation, 

 and Philadelphia would haye participated therein had natural law 

 and sequence held. lUit there has been no advance in the retail price 

 (tf milk in IMiiladelphia ; it is furnished the consumer at the same 

 price as it was eight years ago, and it is furnished below cost. As 

 a result of this condition, the producer of market milk in eastern 

 Pennsylvania is selling his product at an unreasonably low price. 

 Speaking roundly, the adyance in the price of feed stutfs has been 

 from 25 per cent, to 50 per cent., and the advance to the consumer 

 in the animal products aboye recited, except milk, has been about 

 25 per cent., and in the case of milk in all cities but Philadelphia 

 about 12.5 per cent. 



As a general statement, milk has advanced from eight cents per 

 quart retail to nine cents per quart in the cities of the East, excepting 

 Philadelphia. The dairy farmers supplying these cities are receiv- 

 ing about all of this advance of one cent per quart. The retail milk 

 firm with which I am connected has for many years kejjt books in 

 a way that gives close tabs on the cost of distributing milk, and the 

 margin of profit in its sale. We have found this margin to be from 

 a quarter to a half a cent per quart. The milk dealers of Philadel- 

 phia have for three and one-half years past paid the daiiw farmer 

 about one-half cent per quart more for milk tlian in the previous 

 years, thus consuming all our magiu of profit. Besides thus giving 

 uj) his margin in the business to the dairy farmer, the retail dealer 

 has been and today is confronted with a constantly growing demand 

 for large expenditure for the hygienic handling of the milk. Thus the 

 dairy farmer supjjlying Philadelphia with milk is receiving a half 



