THE MILK CONTRACTOR . 357 



milkman. A large dealer can utilize his surplus at a comparatively 

 small loss. 



Losses due to spoiled milk and bad debts are heavy items in many 

 cases and to the small dealer collections are unduly expensive. In Spring- 

 field the loss due to surplus, spoiled milk, and bad accounts as reported 

 by ten dealers amounted to $3,379 annually or 96 cts. per thousand 

 quarts delivered. 



Under a competitive system there is a tendency to take on undesirable 

 customers, to make expensive deliveries and to carry customers who buy 

 milk in small quantities from three or four different milkmen. 



Looked at from almost any angle, a large well-equipped plant, with 

 outlying stations from which deliveries can be made over well-planned 

 routes is more efficient and profitable to distributors than the present 

 unorganized system of small independent competitive units. In the city 

 of Erie, Pennsylvania, the producers formed a milk supply company about 

 seventeen years ago and have been retailing their own milk to the greater 

 part of the population ever since. The venture is a pronounced success 

 and the business of the company has grown rapidly and steadily. 



(a) They have given Erie an excellent quality of milk. 



(6) At a lower price to the consumer than any neighboring cities of 

 the same size. 



(c) They have increased the load per driver, shortened the routes 

 amazingly and lessened delivery costs. 



(d) By means of a bonus system they have increased the wages of the 

 drivers, and at the same time the number of customers served by each 

 driver. 



(e) In the meantime, the company has prospered financially (stock is 

 three times its par value). 



(/) The farmers have been getting more out of their milk than ever 

 before. 



One of the problems of city delivery is that of handling the "come 

 backs" as the undelivered bottles of milk are called. After milk has 

 been hauled about the city in midsummer it has usually acquired a high 

 temperature and bacterial changes have started in it. Consequently it 

 should not make another trip on the delivery wagon; nevertheless some 

 dealers repasteurize it and send it out again. The more particular 

 dealers utilize such milk by making it into butter and cheese. The milk 

 code should prohibit the former practice and every inspector should make 

 it a point to know how this part of the milk business is handled. 



Bookkeeping. Since every dealer is engaged in the purchase and sale 

 of milk a system of bookkeeping is necessary. The larger firms have 

 their accounts to keep with the individual dairymen from whom they 

 buy milk, with the railroads which transport it and with the customers 

 to whom they sell at wholesale and retail. Besides, an account should be 



