MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 173. 



Processing Costs and Delivery Costs. 



The costs of distributing milk fall naturally into two classes — prepa- 

 ration for deUvery or processing, and delivery to customers. The trans- 

 portation of milk from the producer to the dealer is an additional item 

 of expense, but usually the producer delivers his milk to the dealer. In 

 this study the transportation cost has not been considered. The analysis 

 of costs begins with the preparation of the milk for delivery and ends 

 with the collection of money from customers. 



Simple as this analysis appears, a number of items cannot well be 



When the consumer pays 9 cents. 



charged exclusively either to preparation or to deliver}^ — administration 

 and clerical expenses, hght, telephone, etc.; insurance and taxes, perhaps; 

 slirinkage, spoilage and bad debts. In the summary of costs these have 

 been called "overhead" expenses; usually they might well be distributed 

 betv/een processing and delivery. 



From the standpoint of health, pure, clean milk is as necessarj^ as a good 

 water supply. Milk just drawn from a healthy cow under sanitary con- 

 ditions is at its best, and could it reach the consumer in this condition it 

 would be ideal. To preserve it and to overcome the bad effects of un- 

 healthy stock, unsanitary methods and conditions in the barn and reduce 

 to a minimum the unavoidable deterioration in handling, transit and 

 storage, milk has to be "prepared" for the customer. This preparation 

 may be called "processing," and, so far as the distributors interviewed 



