THE WORCESTER MILK MARKET 3 



In 1934 the Massachusetts Legislature decided to do something about the 

 milk situation and in that year established the Milk Control Board. Briefly, 

 it is empowered to set schedules of producer and retail prices in response to a 

 sufficiently large producer petition. It has authority to investigate dealers' 

 records, summon ofi"enders to hearings, and inflict penalties necessary to the 

 proper enforcement of price schedules. The temporary law under which the 

 Board operated was extended by an act of legislature in 1936; but since the first 

 milk-marketing law, the Worcester market, along with other secondary markets 

 in the Commonwealth, has been under the Milk Control Board's jurisdiction. 



To facilitate the Board in its work, the State has been divided into "marketing 

 areas" of similar conditions, the city of Worcester and surrounding towns con- 

 stituting Area 8. Separate price schedules are issued for each area according to 

 local needs, and producers are paid according to the area in which their milk is 

 marketed if such area is not the area in which they liv^e. During 1935 the price 

 of Class I milk to the producer was changed twice. On March 10 it was raised 

 from six and one-half to seven and one-quarter cents per quart, where it remained 

 until October 20, when it was reduced to seven cents per quart. 



The Milk Control Board has carried on other activities besides enforcement 

 of price schedules. It has forced some dealers to make up payments that have 

 been in arrears. A few dealers have been required to reduce excessive trucking 

 rates. The Board has attempted to prevent dealers from dropping producers 

 without reasonable notice and cause, and has required some dealers to keep 

 adequate records of their business. 



The Board is supported by a dealer license fee of $5.00 and an assessment of 

 two cents per hundredweight of all milk sold. The full amount of the assessment 

 is paid by the dealer, who is allowed to deduct half of this amount, or one cent 

 per hundredweight, from producers' checks. 



The Massachusetts Milk Control Board furnished the basic data for this 

 study: records of milk-dealer payroll audits for the calendar year 1935. For 

 all agencies licensed to distribute milk in the city of Worcester, records should 

 have included the following: 



1. Dealer purchases of milk from producers by semi-monthly pay periods. 



2. Milk purchases divided between base and surplus for rating-plan dealers. 



3. Gross Class I, Class II, and blended prices paid for milk by semi-monthly 

 pay periods. 



4. Net amounts (dollars) received for milk by producers by semi-monthly 

 pay periods. 



5. Records of deductions. 



a. Milk Control Board assessments. 



b. Can charges. 



c. Cooperative association fees. 



d. Transportation rates. 



e. Other deductions. 



6. Total purchases by dealers by semi-monthly pay periods and Class I and 

 Class II division of sales. 



The above-outlined price and purchase information was incomplete for certain 

 dealers, but as far as possible the missing data were obtained from actual pay- 

 roll records through personal contacts with such dealers. When data for one or 

 two months were unavailable, interpolations were made. Other omissions have 

 necessitated the study of a large sample rather than absolute tabulation. 



Figure 1, which geographically locates producers, has been used as a basis for 

 showing numerous economic variations among producers in the milkshed. This 

 map shows the location of 617 producers, or approximately 90 percent of the 



