COST OF DISTRIBUTING MILK. 6 



1. The cost and methods of production. 



2. Collection and primary transportation of milk and cream. 



3. Methods and costs of distributing; i.e., preparing for delivery and 

 delivering milk and cream. 



Closely related ^^^th all tliree is the problem of milk inspection. 



Problems 1 and 2 are quite as important as No. 3, the cost of distri- 

 bution, but this prehminary study deals mainly with distribution and 

 incidentally with transportation. Several studies have been made of the 

 cost of producing milk in the North Atlantic States but, in the authors' 

 opinion, none of these deal with the problem of milk production on the 

 typical dairy farms of New England in a detailed and thoroughgoing 

 way over a sufficiently long period.^ Comparatively little serious work 

 has been done on the methods and cost of transporting milk. 



Co-operative Investigation. 



The Department of Agricultural Economics of the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College and the Office of Markets of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture formulated a plan for making an accurate, first-hand 

 study of milk distribution in a number of Massachusetts cities and towns, 

 perhaps the first study of its kind ever organized. 



The data used in this study were collected by agents of the Department 

 of Agricultural Economics and the Office of Markets during the fall of 1914 

 and the winter of 1915. Altogether, rather accurate data were obtained 

 from 85 distributors of milk, each of whom was visited from one to several 

 times in order to obtain as reliable figures as possible. Several of the 

 tabulations were made by the Federal Office of Markets, where all the 

 figures were checked. 



Scope of the Investigation. 



Recognizing the fact that the cost of distribution may vary according 

 to the size and location of a town or city, as well as with the size and 

 method of doing business, it was decided to investigate three groups of 

 towns. 



Amherst and Walpole, each having a population approximating 5,000, — 

 the former a college town in the Connecticut valley and the latter an 

 industrial center in the southeastern part of the State, — were chosen as 

 typifying small town conditions in different parts of Massachusetts. Both 

 Amherst and Walpole draw their supply of milk from the immediate 



' Hanvood, P. M.: What it costs to produce Milk in New England. Mass. State Bd. of Agr. 

 Cir. No. 9. Boston, Mass., 1914. Hopper, H. A., and Robertson, F. E.: The Cost of Milk Pro- 

 duction. Cornell University in co-operation with Jefferson County Farm Bureau, Bui. No. 

 357. Ithaca, N. Y., 1915. Lindsey, J. B.: Record of the Station Dairy Herd and the Cost of 

 Milk Production. Mass. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. No. 145. Amherst, Mass., 1913. Rasmussen, Fred: 

 Cost of Milk Production. New Hampshire Coll. and Exp. Sta. Exp. Bui. No. 2. Durham, 

 N. H., 1913. Thompson, A. L.: Cost of producing Milk on 174 Farms in Delaware County, 

 N. Y. Cornell Univ. Bui. No. 364. Ithaca, N. Y., 1915. Trueman, J. M.: Records of a Dairy 

 Herd for Five Years. Storrs Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. No. 73. Storrs, Conn.. 1912. 



