desire, therefore, to consider a few of the economic features of the 

 business that tend to encourage or discourage the production of 

 more acceptable grades of milk. 



There are numerous organizations to promote better methods 

 among milk producers. In order that their efforts may be most 

 fruitful, their recommendations must point the way to greater 

 profits for the producer. Nothing educates so effectively as an 

 increase in price. In the butter-producing industry we are now 

 confronted with an aggravating situation as regards appreciation 

 for quality in cream deliveries. The competition has been so 

 strong for cream of any quality that the respect of the producer 

 for proper sanitary provisions has been well nigh destroyed. With 

 the knowledge that poor stuff commands the same price as good 

 material, he has lost interest in maintaining high standards. 

 This emphasizes the necessity for a price recognition in order to 

 attract and hold quality and is applicable to the improvement of 

 the milk supply. Any effort to improve the milk supply which 

 overlooks this fact, starts out at a disadvantage. 



Milk Has Not Sold for Its Full Value. 



In recent years the cost of labor and food supplies has advanced 

 rapidly and most producers with herds of only average economic- 

 ability have been getting the short end of profits from the sale of 

 their product. The advancement of the selling price has not kept 

 pace with the increase in cost, and, consequently, dairymen have 

 often looked upon the agitation for better milk with considerable 

 well-founded suspicion. It is said that since 1894 the cost of labor 

 has increased 100% ; the installation of new appliances and equip- 

 ment for the proper handling of milk, 20%, and feed in general, 

 50%. The cost of sound cattle has advanced 75%. Where a few 

 years ago, bran, a staple dairy concentrate, could be purchased at 

 $14.00 per ton, it now costs about $30.00. With a similar advance- 

 ment in other feeds, as well as in labor, it is conservative to say 

 that these elements in the cost of production have doubled in recent 

 years. 



A further and equally important factor influencing increased 

 cost is the. rapid increase in land values, especially of those lands 

 available for dairying. Naturally, the milk supply must be drawn 

 from territory within a "certain radius of the centers of population. 

 Consequently, the price that is forthcoming will determine the 

 lands that can be used and their location will affect directly and 

 indirectly the quality, as well as the quantity of milk to be pro- 

 duced. With good cows and good business methods, dairying will 

 pay on high-priced lands, if milk is paid for at a price commensurate 

 with other food products. When the consumers refuse to pay a 

 fair price, production is shifted to cheaper and more remote lands 

 where it is harded to supervise and the difficulties of transportation 

 augmented. Many a careful producer has been crowded out 

 through the preference of consumers for a cheap, inferior grade of 

 milk. Cases of this kind are matters of common observation. 

 Until some substantial readjustment of cost takes place, we can 

 expect little more in the way of care on the part of average open- 

 minded dairymen. 



