6 P.D. 123 



local boards of health and it has been our purpose to point out that the work 

 we are doing and the work that we intend to do runs parallel with the merito- 

 rious program that the health officials have in mind. The Massachusetts State 

 College, the Extension Service, the Farm Bureau and other agencies that are 

 interested in the production of quality milk have continued to give the same 

 character of cooperation that has met with our approval in past years. We 

 believe that the continuation of this program is worth while; that infant mor- 

 tality has decreased, that milk borne diseases are not at this time the great 

 concern to the parents of children that they were in past years, and while there 

 is a small additional cost that must be borne by the consumer relating to the 

 inspection of milk, this cost is more than offset by the benefits that reach every 

 household in the Commonwealth. 



Protecting the Farmer's Milk Check 



Our dairy farmers are scattered in every nook and comer of this State. They 

 know very little about Court procedure; they know very little about credit 

 risk; their contacts with the business world are very limited; in fact ninety 

 per cent of them are content to work many long hours each day producing milk 

 for the many consumers in our cities and towns, delivering that milk to the 

 dealer, with the understanding that they will be paid either monthly or bi- 

 monthly, and risking their livelihood upon the ability or decision of the milk 

 dealer to pay promptly or otherwise, for that fluid milk. Many of our dairy 

 farmers have waited long, anxiously and sometimes in vain for the milk check 

 that was to pay the taxes ot the grain bill, or enable the parents to buy food 

 and clothing for a growing family. Our Legislature, realizing the many in- 

 stances wherein the farmer had not been paid for his milk, passed the license 

 and bonding law in 1933, which required all persons operating a milk plant 

 and pi;rehasing milk from Massachusetts farmers to be bonded in an amount 

 equal to the purchase of milk by them from Massachusetts farmers, during 

 one payment period, plus ten per cent. 



During the past year approximately eight hundred milk dealers have filed 

 with the Commissioner of Agriculture, security to an amount of nearly 

 $600,000.00, and these securities have been deposited with the State Treasurer, 

 and in the case of default, the amount of security filed by any particular milk 

 dealer may be reached and applied to the amounts due the dairy farmer. We 

 have found it necessary, in five or six cases, to use the collateral that had been 

 deposited by the dealers to pay the farmers, when we had reason to feel that 

 the dairy farmer's milk check was in jeopardy. 



It is not the purpose of this law to work any particular hardship upon a 

 milk dealer who is financially responsible. It is the purpose of this law to be 

 very exacting in the case of the unscrupulous milk dealer whose apparent 

 purpose is to buy on credit and neglect his payments to the dairy farmer who 

 has trusted him over a considerable period of time with his fluid milk. 



This Department has been very reasonable in accepting certain types of 

 mortgage security, when it seemed apparent that the milk dealer could offer 

 no liquid type of security and would be forced out of business if the mortgage 

 was not accepted. Our law leaves with the Commissioner of Agriculture the 

 discretion to accept mortgages, but our experience would point out that only 

 the best type of mortgage should be accepted and the fewer mortgages that 

 are filed with the Department, the better the protection to the dairy farmer. 

 It might well be said that, as the year 1934 closes, considerable advance has 

 been made in perfecting our organization, relating to the licensing and bonding 

 of milk dealers, and we approach the new year with greater courage in planning 

 a program that will more adequately protect the dairy farmer's milk check. 



Ikspection of Dairy Plants 

 During the past year a law requiring the milk dealers to notify the producers, 

 daily, relative to the weight of their milk was put into operation and inspectors 

 from this Department have visited most of the milk plants in the State in an 



