COST OF MARKETING DAIRY PRODUCTS 



259 



2. Processing and Bottling Cost. This includes cost of put- 

 ting the milk in shape for marketing, such as clarifying, pas- 

 teurizing, cooling, bottling, etc. This cost has been variously 

 estimated at from 0.3 cent to i.o cent per quart. 



The labor cost in filling and capping the bottles (Table XXII) 1 

 is determined for 107 plants in six cities and shows that 839 

 bottles were capped per man per hour; the labor cost per 

 hundred bottles being 2.4 cents; varying from 0.9 to 8.0 cent. 



TABLE XXII 

 LABOR COST FOR FILLING AND CAPPING MILK BOTTLES 



The value of most modern and up-to-date machinery as well 

 as the most efficient operation of such machinery is illustrated 

 by Table XXIII. 2 This table furthermore emphasizes the fact 

 that the efficiency of the operators as well as the proper num- 



1 Milk plant letter No. 20, Dept. of Agriculture, B. A. I., October, 1915. 

 According to figures in Table XXII the average costs in Boston and Washington 



were considerably higher than in the other cities, but in the latter city a larger 

 proportion of the smaller and less efficient plants were taken into consideration 

 while in the former city 26 of the plants supplying data were capping by hand, 

 with an average labor cost of 4.5 cents per 100 bottles, varying from 2.1 cents to 

 8.0 cents. Higher wages were also reported in that city than in some of the others, 

 thus making the labor cost high in proportion to the number of bottles filled per 

 man per hour. In Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore a larger proportion of 

 the plants considered were using automatic machines than in the other cities. 



2 Milk plant letter No. 20, Dep. of Agriculture, B. A. I. October, 1915. 



