THE TRANSPORTATION OF MILK 213 



strife betwixt the farmer and dealer and to make the farmer less ambitious 

 to produce superior milk. 



The Saunders law which was enacted in Massachusetts in 1910 com- 

 pels the railroad to load, unload and ice milk and to furnish the same 

 rate for one can as for 1,000 cans. The consequence has been that 

 the large dealers forsook Massachusetts for other territory to the injury 

 of the farmers of the State. 



The Chamber advises the abolishment of the leased car system and the 

 establishment of a uniform rate for milk and cream per can based on a 

 zone or flat rate per mile, the railroads performing the loading, unload- 

 ing, and icing. The rate for milk should be lower than that for cream. 

 All deductions on account of freight train service should be abolished. 

 The rate for a carload, when the shipper loads at not more than two sta- 

 tions in a given section and does his own icing and unloading, should be 

 at a percentage less than the per can rate. Rates should be uniform 

 throughout New England, thus enabling groups of farmers to ship to the 

 market at an equal advantage with the dealers, or to secure competitive 

 bids from the dealers. This system is substantially the same as that pre- 

 vailing on the Pennsylvania, New York Central and Canadian Pacific 

 Railroads. This suggestion of the Chamber has been virtually approved 

 by the Interstate Commerce Commission which ruled against the leased 

 car system. 



It is advised that State and local boards of health prohibit the ship- 

 ment of milk and cream at a temperature above a fixed maximum but that 

 railroads should not be expected to reduce the temperature of milk and 

 cream in transit. The establishment of country milk stations it is held 

 will help to insure the shipment of milk at proper temperature. 



In 1911, the Washington Chamber of Commerce investigated the milk 

 situation in the District of Columbia and among other things attempted 

 to secure information that would permit it to conclude as to the prac- 

 ticability of providing refrigerator car service, or alternative means, for 

 maintaining milk in transit at below 50F. Of the railways entering the 

 District only the Pennsylvania and the Southern railways and the New 

 York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. heeded the requests of the 

 Chamber for information. 



The New York Central lines reported that the cost of refrigeration 

 varies on different parts of the system, according to weather conditions, 

 the kind of container in which the milk is shipped, the length of haul and 

 the facilities for rapid handling at destination. 



The Pennsylvania explained that three factors enter into the cost of 

 hauling milk under refrigeration, to wit, the length of haul, the tempera- 

 ture of the milk when placed in the car, and the circumstance whether the 

 cars are to be loaded at one point or at intervals between the originating 

 point and destination. If the class "Rf" refrigerator car is to be used 



