STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 363 



This resolved itself into the fact that the size of the load was limited to what 

 is a day's work for horse and man. Some of the things found to determine a 

 day's work for horse and man were as follows: Industriousness and effi- 

 ciency of the man, equipment provided, character of roads, density of popu- 

 lation in region covered, season of year, distance traveled, and milk sold per 

 stop. Industriousness and efl5ciency of the deli very man at times doubled 

 the load over what a previous driver carried. This was overcome to some 

 extent by paying a minimum wage plus a percentage on sales. Practically 

 all two horse wagons, trucks, and the larger one horse wagons will carry 

 enough milk in bottles on one load to give a deliveryman a good day's work 

 if he delivers the whole load to retail customers and does his work well. The 

 efficiency of the man in handling his o\^ti route has more to do with the 

 efficiency of delivery than any modification in the handling of collective 

 routes. Much time can be lost and sales affected by poor management of 

 the driver. One minute spent at each house stop in summoning delinquent 

 customers or in conversation or making change with each customer means 

 over four hours time a day outside of delivery. The art of house to house 

 salesmanship is possessed by few and to accomplish these transactions in the 

 minimum time without offense to the buyer is an even more rare ability. 

 Unnecessary duplication and drives and many other smaller items make the 

 salesman the big factor in efficiency of delivery. 



The equipment provided the man may increase or decrease his delivery. 

 A sturdy wagon of suitable size, supplied vnth plenty of reliable horsepower, 

 facilitates delivery. On good roads more can usually be accomplished with 

 one horse than a team, because generally one horse will learn the route, follow 

 the driver and respond to his commands better than will a team. Some 

 teams, however, are very satisfactory and in some cases a necessity on routes 

 where the roads are bad or where large loads are carried. Wagons so small or 

 weak that extra trips must be made for more milk or have milk delivered to 

 them at field points will retard deliveries. Poorly constructed wagons which 

 demand extra labor and shifting of cases, and poor delapidated wagons typ- 

 ical of the cheap huckster class, will delay the service of delivery. In order 

 to obtain the best results the wagon should be large enough to take care of 

 any temporary expansion of business, and the largest day's delivery of the 

 year. This may cause the deliveryman to work overtime a small portion 

 of the year. A one-man milk route is never large enough to support two 

 routes even during the rush season. 



Roads affect the size of load and rate of delivery. Their condition varies 

 at different seasons of the year. Rough as well as heavy roads demand slow 

 driving; and when the roads are real bad, as in the spring, the load must be 

 greatly reduced or an extra horse added. This is true mostly for the routes 

 covering the outskirts and newer portions of a city. Those more centrally 

 located usually have the better roads the year around. 



The distance traveled affects the size of the load by limiting the time to 

 carry the milk from the wagon to the door step. This is true only where 

 mileage is excessive as the driver usually takes advantage of short drives to 

 shift cases, ffil carriers, mark charges in his route-book or take tickets from 

 the bottles. 



Summer season makes a larger demand on milk distribution than any other 

 season. For this reason the wagon must be able to take care of its maximum 

 load in the summer, while during the other seasons the load decreases. Data 

 presented in Table I show that there is a 23 per cent increase in city sales 

 during the spring and summer months over the low period of the year. 



