CHAPTER V 

 THE TRANSPORTATION OF MILK 



The Hauling of Milk. After milk has been produced on the farm it 

 must be carried to the consumer. A considerable number of dairymen 

 either load the milk into their own delivery wagons and retail it thenv 

 selves or dispose of it to a neighbor who does so. Others take their 

 milk in cans to a creamery or country milk plant where it is sometimes 

 pasteurized and almost always cooled after which it is put into other 

 cans or into bottles for shipment to the city, but most farmers carry their 

 milk right to the depot where it is picked up by milk trains. 



The hauling of milk is a source of expense to the farmer. A deal of 

 time is wasted in those dairy districts where it is the custom for every 

 farmer to drive to the station with the few cans of milk that he produces. 

 In more progressive communities the farmers economize by combining 

 their loads, the hauling being done either by several neighbors who agree 

 to carry the milk in turn, or by a driver who is hired to haul it all. There 

 are some objections to the latter practice but they are usually overcome 

 where there is a disposition to do so. A careless driver may confuse the 

 lots of milk shipped by the different farmers and a dishonest one may 

 tamper with the milk. Milk that is handled by a truckman is often 

 exposed to deteriorating influences of various sorts. He usually follows 

 the main road and so farmers living on branch roads bring their milk to 

 the thoroughfare to be picked up. Consequently it stands exposed to 

 sun, rain and dust, to the attention of animals and of mischievous persons 

 to its injury. The same dangers are often encountered when milk is 

 left exposed and unguarded on railway platforms. 



Unless proper precautions are taken of milk in transit it is apt to 

 be injured in cold weather by freezing, and in warm, it is likely to be 

 decomposed by bacterial growths. 



The costs of teaming milk are illustrated in Tables 55, 56 and 57 

 which are adapted from Bulletin 357 of the Cornell University Station 

 and also by Table 58. Table 55 gives the cost for each of the 53 farms 

 surveyed. In Table 56 the farms are grouped according to the distance 

 the milk is carried. While there is not a progressive increase in cost per 

 hundredweight from group to group, there is so for the %- to 1- to 2- to 

 3- to 4-mile groups, which illustrates the tendency for the cost of trans- 

 portation to increase with the distance. Table 58 shows that it costs 

 more for the farmer to haul his own milk than to hire it done, 

 is 193 



