6 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 304 



milk by distributors, however, was lower in relation to their own production than 

 in the other two areas. Although the purchase of milk by producer-distributors 

 in the Gardner market has increased since 1930, their dependence on the pur- 

 chased milk has not reached the same level as in the Newburyport market. A 

 considerable decline in production and purchase of milk by the Gardner producers 

 in 1931 was caused by the newly introduced regulations of the Board of Health, 

 which forced some of the producer-distributors to buy milk from the pasteurizing 

 plants. In the face of falling prices and sales of milk the general tendency among 

 producer-distributors at the time of the investigation was to curtail the purchase 

 of milk and maintain or even increase their own production. 



Table 1. Daily Production and Purchases of Milk by 

 Producer-Distributors 



Milk Produced Daily Milk Purchased Daily 



Year Number of Quarts Number of Quarts 



Producer- Producer- 



Distributors Distributors 



Attleboro 



1930 33 3,873 6 615 



1931 36 4,168 7 635 



1932 35 3,724 8 675 



Gardner 



1930 23 2,886 7 602 



1931 21 2.555 10 1,125 



1932 26 3,096 12 994 



N ewburyport 



1930 16 1,407 13 1,921 



1931 16 1,287 13 1,721 



1932 17 1,404 11 1,420 



Size of Herds Owned by Producer-Distributors 



The distribution of the number of cows owned by producer-distributors in- 

 dicates that most of them kept small herds. (Table 2.) More than half of the pro- 

 ducer-distributors in Attleboro and Newburyport markets and about one-third 

 in Gardner had 9 or less cows each. Only 7 producers in Gardner and Attleboro 

 areas and 3 in Newburyport area had 20 or more cows each. On the average the 

 largest herds of cows were found in Gardner area with about 16 cows per pro- 

 ducer-distributor, and the smallest in Newburyport area with about 11 cows. 



Since 1930 the size of herds owned by individual producers at any particular 

 time has undergone considerable change owing to the application of the tuberculin 

 test. In spite of considerable elimination caused by the test, practically all the 

 producers have brought their herds to the previous size or even Increased them. 



