128 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 236 



article of commerce in the region. The results show that the average per 

 capita consumption of milk is only .38 quarts a day. This is a smaller 

 quantity than the customary estimates for similar communities.! The 

 average consumption of cream is .015 quarts a day. Converted to the 

 basis of the milk required to make the cream, this equals .16 quarts of 

 milk in addition to that consumed as milk. Even the total, ..54 quarts of 

 "milk equivalent", is not large and indicates that an increased consumption 

 might be stimulated. 



Sources of Supply 



Th« following table shows the sources of milk and cream in the fall 

 months. During the early summer a much larger place would be taken 

 by supplies from the local area and from other Massachusetts sources. 

 During the season of low production, by far the larger part of the cream 

 comes from outside the state and practically none of the milk produced 

 in the local area is made into conmiercial cream. 



Sources of Milk and Cream used in the Springfield Area in the VaU of 1926. 



(Quarts per Dai/) 



ten times the number oi 



* Total in Milk Equivalent ^ number of quarts of mil 

 quarts of cream. 



It thus appears that this area produces 22.1 per cent of its fluid milk 

 e\en in seasons of short production, brings in only 43.5 per cent of it.s 

 supply from other states, and gets the remaining 34.4 per cent from more 

 distant sources within the state. In addition to these supplies for fluid 

 consumption, there is a material supply of milk, cream and ice-cream 

 "mix" coming into the area for the ice-cream trade. 



Tliere are six original receivers of supplies from other states. Two of 

 these are cooperative concerns handling, almost entirely, milk produced 

 by members. Two are dealers handling the output of a cooperative 

 creamery in southern Vermont. Of the two other dealers handling out-of- 

 state supplies, one handles but a few hundred quarts and both purchase 

 more milk for fluid consumption within the state than outside of it. Two 

 large dealers handle no regular supplies of milk but that of Massachusetts 

 origin, although their business is large enough to allow car-lot shipments 

 from the north. One of these bought northern milk for a brief period 

 when his Massachusetts patrons signed a contract with a cooperative con- 

 cern, but is again purchasing only from Massachusetts sources. 



The accompanying map shows the origins of supplies entering the 

 Springfield area. 



1 This estimate is based upon that of the New England Crop Reporting Service for 

 October 1925, for Hampden County, which was the only material available for such 

 a localized study at the time of writing. In the light of preliminary estimates 

 of the same agency for 1926 and the agricultural census of 1925, it appears that 

 there is sufficient indefiniteness in the local production data to give a probable 

 margin of error of -1-.02 quarts in the total milk consumption. The difference in 

 local production estimates does not affect the estimates for cream consumption 

 which are based almost wholly upon the shipped-in supplies. 



