Xo. 4.] MILK. 59 



consideration the fact that avb take eveiy quart of milk a 

 man makes ; then we abolish any washing of cans ; the teams 

 drive up to a man's house and set off 10 clean cans on the 

 walk, he puts his 10 full cans on the wagon, and that is all 

 we ask of him ; he has all that extra time to attend to his 

 other duties, and I tell you, gentlemen, that is a good deal. 

 Take it year in and year out, if you charged that time up, 

 you would find you had put in dollars and dollars that you 

 had received no return for. I don't want you to understand 

 that there isn't milk sold for more money, but, considering 

 all these things, our farmers get a fancy price, — the banner 

 })rice in the State. 



jNIr. C. E. Parker (of Holden) . The people who produce 

 milk for the lecturer's association get the munificent price of 

 3 cents a cj[uart, 25-^ cents a can. Is that larger than the people 

 throughout the State get, even from the Boston contractors? 

 It seems to me that they pay a larger price than that. The 

 lecturer spoke of selling milk in three different ways, either 

 through the contractors, peddling it himself, or to the mid- 

 dlemen. I wish we could contrive some way that the 

 middlemen could be eliminated from the business. I have 

 heard of one man who circulated around Shrewsbury and 

 cheated the farmers out of a good many hundred dollars. If 

 there is any way to get the better of such characters, I wish 

 we could find it out. 



The Chair. Part of the pay that the farmer gets from 

 the Springfield Co-operative Milk Association for his milk 

 is the surety that he will get his pay ; that is worth a good 

 deal to him. He is sure at the end of the month of getting 

 his check, and 8 cents a quart is a good deal better than 3l/'2 

 with a risk of losins; the full amount. We must now bring 

 this session to a close. 



Adjourned. 



Afternoon Session. 



The afternoon session opened at 2 o'clock, Mr. X. I. 

 Bowditch of Framingham presiding. 



The Chair. Before beo^inninof the reo-ular work of the 

 afternoon I wish to read a circular issued by the Massachu- 



