THE MILK CONTRACTOR 



329 



was collected in 91 milk plants in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pitts- 

 burgh, and Washington. Table 93 summarizes the cost of washing 

 bottles at these plants and Table 94 shows how the cost of washing 

 bottles in the five cities compares, all three types of washing being used. 



In Table 94 the results were obtained by dividing the total cost 

 of labor at all of the plants in each city by the whole number of bot- 

 tles washed in that city. The high costs in some of the large plants 

 in Washington increased the average cost. 



Table 95 summarizes the costs for all the plants studied in the five 

 cities and Table 96 compares the bottles washed per hour and per man per 

 hour by the three methods. 



TABLE 95. COST OF WASHING BOTTLES IN 91 PLANTS IN FIVE CITIES OP THE UNITED 

 STATES (U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE) 



TABLE 96. COMPARISON OF THE NUMBER OF BOTTLES WASHED BY THREE DIFFER- 

 ENT METHODS (U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE) 



Method 



No. of bottles washed per man per 



Table 96 shows a wide variation in efficiency even when the same 

 method of washing is used. This is partly accounted for by various fac- 

 tors such as machines of the same type being more serviceable and of 

 larger capacity than others, operators being delayed by breakdowns, 

 broken bottles, lack of steam, etc., but the lower figures, as a whole, show 

 poor work. 



Table 97 shows the number of men employed with the different methods 

 at the several plants studied. 



TABLE 97. NUMBER OF MEN EMPLOYED ON DIFFERENT TYPES OP BOTTLE-WASHING 

 MACHINES (U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE) 



