MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 389 



Figure 1. Shippers in the Springfield-Holyoke-Chicopee Milkshed, 1935 

 Located by Markets* 



*Springfield shippers living in New York and Vermont were not located. 



In developing the study, the clusters of producers were given an identity desig- 

 nated as "competitive area." A very common observation had been that a 

 particular geographical group of producers was selling milk to a number of dealers. 

 From this it seemed logical to assume that in a relatively small area a degree of 

 competition for the supply might exist. Or if the dealers exhibited no com- 

 petitive spirit due to the existence of a "buyers' " market, then the producers 

 might have been expected to express a measure of competition for the market. 

 Competition would have existed when either the standardized 3.7 prices or the 

 actual prices to producers were practically uniform. No competition existed. ^ 

 The identity of the areas, however, has been retained as a convenient means of 

 describing the productive characteristics of the shed. (Figure 3.) 



Exclusiveness of the Shed 



Overlapping supply areas with additional transportation costs is one of the 

 characteristics of the quasi competitive — quasi public-utility system of milk 



'See section on Prices to Producers. 



