THE MILK CONTRACTOR 235 



thought of indicates deep dissatisfaction with the methods that have 

 been in vogue. 



Among milk consumers the suspicion is rife that some one is getting 

 undue profits out of the milk business but whether their mistrust is 

 warranted or not they are unable to tell for they know nothing about the 

 cost of milk production, or of transporting milk and the contractors have 

 given little information as to the cost of conducting their part of the 

 business. 



It is the contractor's contention that the price of milk is fixed only by 

 supply and demand, that the similarity of schedule is to be expected 

 because the producers are all thoroughly familiar with the market and 

 the scale of prices is merely a reflection of their opinion of it. Contractors 

 admit that the trade of small dealers is from time to time absorbed, but 

 they contend that this is because the milk business naturally lends itself 

 to monopoly, because the expenses of conducting a small business are 

 great as compared with that of conducting a large one, and they assert 

 that they are receiving a very moderate return for the capital they have 

 invested. 



Methods of Paying Producers. The dealer's check is sent the dairy- 

 man weekly, monthly for the previous month, or payment for a month's 

 milk is withheld for longer periods; in some cases dealers are habitually 

 2 or 3 months in arrears to the dairyman. In many instances these de- 

 linquent dealers fail, which has led some States to enact laws compelling 

 contractors to file bonds to secure their purchases of milk and cream. 



Milk Plants. Milk companies build stations or plants for handling 

 milk and preparing it for delivery. These plants are developments of 

 the milk room or milk house that are part of the equipment of dairymen 

 who retail their own milk. Originally such houses were merely conven- 

 ient places to work and for storing milk in tanks filled with well or spring 

 water. Sometimes, if dairymen made butter, the houses were equipped 

 with churns. Later, milk coolers, bottlers and separators appeared and 

 the dairymen had to meet the problems of drainage, disposal of wastes, 

 etc.; in fact these milk houses became stations in miniature. 



Milk stations may be divided into two classes according to whether 

 they are located in the country or the city. The processes through 

 which milk is put in the two classes of plants are much alike, the principal 

 difference being in the scale on which they are conducted. So the 

 detailed discussion of them that follows in the account of city plants is 

 intended to cover both. 



Country Milk Plants. Country plants in different parts of the United 

 States are given divers names being variously called creameries, milk- 

 receiving depots, bottling plants and shipping stations. They are usually 

 owned and operated by city milk contractors, but in some instances by 

 farmers. In response to the latest development in the city milk trade 



