THE MILK CONTRACTOR 229 



overdone, which invites sharp practice such as watering and skimming 

 of the milk, and there very likely follows a period of uncertain develop- 

 ment. Routes change owners in quick succession; it is a time of in-and- 

 outers, for farmers peddle milk when prices are good and quit to carry their 

 milk to a creamery when they are bad. At this stage the milk-consum- 

 ing public suffers; it is a period of poor milk and unreliable service. 

 Nevertheless a few milkmen succeed in establishing a reputation and in 

 convincing people that they have the intelligence and capital to succeed. 

 They absorb the trade of the weaker dealers and carry on the bulk of the 

 business, supplying the city with milk from their own farms and those 

 of their neighbors in the city and its environs. Gradually the farms 

 within the corporate limits of the city give way to city blocks and land 

 in the suburbs becomes so high-priced that it cannot be profitably farmed, 

 so that the milk supply comes from further and further away, till at last 

 it is no longer within wagon haul, and the intimate relationship that 

 existed in the village between the dairy farmer and the consumer is lost. 

 By whom the milk is produced and whence it comes, the city man does 

 not know. His milkman is one who buys the milk at wholesale from the 

 dairyman and retails it to the consumer. This newcomer is known as 

 the. middleman, city milkman, or contractor. 



The Milk Contractor. His advent comes about naturally and for 

 several reasons. Dairy farming is a business in itself and requires all 

 the time, thought and energy the man who carries it on has. Likewise 

 the selling of milk is a business complete in itself and the creation and. 

 maintenance of an organization competent to render the prompt and 

 reliable service necessary for the city man to deal understandingly with 

 him and to collect payment for service rendered, can hardly be well 

 done by one absorbed in the problems of production. Also, the handling 

 of the milk on its' arrival in the city, preparatory to delivery, requires 

 knowledge and training not possessed by the farmer. Finally, the separa- 

 tion of the city milk trade from that of milk production effects a division 

 of capital so that the burden of financing the business falls less heavily 

 on both producers and retailers, and in the country makes it possible for 

 men to engage in dairying who could not do so if they had to pay for the 

 shipment of milk to the city and in any large measure be responsible for 

 it there. In fact in the early days before the city milk business became 

 stable, severe losses were suffered by dairymen who not rarely sold milk 

 to men who had not sufficient capital and so failed, leaving the farmer 

 in the lurch with a large amount of money due him and no market for 

 his milk till he could find a new contractor to handle it. 



The contractor, then, is the middleman who in building his own 

 business has made himself all but indispensable to both the milk consumer 

 and milk producer. To the consumer, the contractor must deliver clean 

 wholesome milk in order to win his trade and hold it. The city man is 



