14 



MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 173. 



Table V. — Cost per^Quart and Percentage of Total Cost for Deprecia- 

 tion, Maintenance, Circulating Capital and Labor. 



Costs classified by Size and Kind of Business. 



Perhaps a better analysis of 80 plants is presented in Table VI. In this 

 analysis an attempt has been made to classify the distributors by size of 

 business and to set forth the items of cost under processing, delivery and 

 overhead. 



Only three plants do a business exceeding 2,000 quarts daily, hence the 

 figures for these must be used with caution. Sixty plants do a mixed 

 business, about three-fourths retail and one-fourth wholesale. Twenty 

 plants deUver retail milk only. None of the all-retail plants do a daily 

 business of 500 quarts. They are of one and two wagon capacity and so 

 far as size of business is concerned should be classified with the "under 

 500" group. 



The actual per quart costs, wliich include both wholesale and retail milk, 

 run from about 1.6 to 2.9 cents per quart. The discrepancy between per 

 quart costs given in Tables IV, V and VI is accounted for by the fact that 

 in Table IV only 42 firms are considered and the cost of distributing all 

 wholesale milk is computed at one-half cent per quart. 



Plants of 500 to 1,000 quarts capacity do business most economically — 

 1.64 cents a quart for all milk delivered and 2.05 cents per quart for milk 

 retailed. These costs are 25 per cent, and 22 per cent., respectively, 

 below the average of all the plants investigated (2.21 cents for all deliveries 

 and 2.64 cents for retailed milk). Plants of 1,000 to 2,000 quarts dis- 

 tribute for 1.82 and 2.23 cents per quart. The 27 plants of less than 500 

 quarts daily capacity average 2.04 and 2.66 cents a quart. The 3 plants 

 doing a mixed business of more than 2,000 quarts daily and the 20 

 exclusively retail plants show the highest per quart costs for retailing — 

 2.92 and 2.93 cents for all expenses. 



