320 



CITY MILK SUPPLY 



shown by any of the rotaries. Many other factors besides the efficiency 

 of the operators and the types of the machines are important elements in 

 the final cost of bottling; thus in some plants dirty and broken bottles 

 delayed the machines while in others the pasteurizers did not deliver the 

 milk fast enough to admit of the fillers being run to capacity. 



In all, 107 plants in six cities were studied. It was found that the 

 average number of bottles filled and capped per hour was 3,236, or per 

 man per hour 839 and that the labor cost ranged from 0.9 to 8 cts. per 

 100 bottles and averaged 2.4 cts. Table 90 shows how the costs varied 

 in the six cities. 



TABLE 90. COST OP FILLING AND CAPPING MILK BOTTLES IN Six PRINCIPAL CITIES OF 

 THE UNITED STATES (U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE) 



According to these figures the average costs in Boston and Washington 

 were higher than in the other cities, but in Washington a larger proportion 

 of the smaller and less efficient plants were studied, while in Boston 26 

 of the plants that supplied data were capping by hand at a cost of from 

 2.1 to 8 cts. per 100 bottles and at an average cost of 4.5 cts. The wages 

 in Boston, too, were higher than in some of the other cities. More auto- 

 matic machines were used in Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore 

 than in other cities. 



The rates at which bottles were handled by the different machines 

 are shown in Table 91. 



TABLE 91. RATE PER HOUR AND PER MAN PER HOUR AT WHICH DIFFERENT TYPES 

 OF MACHINES FILLED AND CAPPED MILK BOTTLES (U. S. DEPARTMENT OF 



AGRICULTURE) 



