20 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



beef that is cheap at wholesale than of high-priced beef. It was a 

 safe inference that the poorer people paid nearly twice the gross 

 profit that the more well-to-do people paid. 



THE DAIRYMAN GETS ONE-HALF THE MILK PRICE. 



Another investigation into the increase of prices in the process of 

 distribution was made in the last week of June, 1910. This time the 

 object was to discover what fraction of the consumer's price was re- 

 ceived by the farmer. It was a time of high prices, of high cost of 

 living, and the aim was to ascertain to what extent the farmer re- 

 ceived a return out of the high consumer's cost of farm products. 



The investigation covered 78 cities scattered throughout the United 

 States, and the information was contributed by a large number of the 

 Department's crop correspondents and by some of its special agents, 

 who made inquiries in all of the 78 cities. The cities were divided into 

 geographical groups for the purpose of computing averages, and these 

 were combined into an average for the United States, all after proper 

 weighting according to importance. 



Milk was one of the commodities under investigation — a food prod- 

 uct indispensable to a large fraction of the families of the Nation, 

 and now a costly one to all consumers. 



While it is true that the dairyman is receiving considerably more 

 for his milk than he did before the present era of high prices, yet 

 it was discovered in this investigation that throughout the United 

 States he receives a scant 50 per cent, or one-half of the price paid by 

 the consumer. The other half goes to the railway company for car- 

 riage, to the wholesale milk dealer, if there is one in the chain of dis- 

 tribution, and to the retailer who delivers at the consumer's door. 



Freight charges for carrying milk vary according to distance, but 

 their average may be regarded as approximately about 7 per cent of 

 the consumer's price. With the farmer receiving about 50 per cent 

 of that price and the railroads 7 per cent, the remaining 43 per cent 

 of the consumer's price is received mostly by the retailer. 



The milk wagon of the retailer has a long route. It stops at a house 

 or two in one city block, perhaps passes several blocks without stop- 

 ping, and so proceeds to serve customers thinly distributed along a 

 route of miles. At the same time the milk wagons of other retailers 

 are covering various portions of the same route, and so there is a 

 great waste of effort and of expense in the distribution. 



The division of States in which the cost of distributing milk from 

 producer to consumer is the most is the North Central group, in which 

 producers receive 44 per cent of the prices paid by the consumer. 

 Next in order follow the Western States with 47 per cent, the North 

 Atlantic States with 53 per cent, the South Central States with 55 per 

 cent, and the South Atlantic States "with 57 per cent. 



