52 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 173. 



dealers, large and small, have WTestled with for years with little success. 

 An emergency butter and cheese factory managed co-operatively, which 

 will utiHze part of the existing equipment and take care of all the extra 

 milk, is, perhaps, the best suggestion. Some relief will come from a form 

 of contract with the producers which provides for definite variations in 

 supply. At best there will always be a loss at this point. 



The loss sustained by 10 dealers in Springfield, delivering 9,600 quarts 

 wholesale and retail daily, amounted to Sl,661.50 per year, or 52 cents 

 per 1,000 quarts retailed annually. This does not represent the whole 

 value of the milk; it was disposed of at the above loss. 



8. Duplication in Routes. — The economic waste through duplication 

 of milk routes was evident in all the towns and cities visited. From per- 

 sonal observation, at an apartment house containing four families, three 

 milkmen called to deliver 4 quarts of milk; at another fourth-floor tene- 

 ment three different milkmen climb four flights everj' day to deliver 6 

 pints to four families. Between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. 42 milk 

 wagons were observed to pass down Bowdoin Street, Worcester; only one 

 failed to deposit milk within a distance of 400 yards from the observer. 

 Similar conditions were found in all the other towns and cities visited. 



In Worcester 103 one-horse milk wagons and 62 two-horse wagons 

 average approximately 8^ miles per wagon per day; the 64 Worcester 

 retail routes considered in this study aggregate 565 miles, 8.83 miles per 

 route. Eight and one-half miles is probably a conservative estimate for 

 approximately 265 milk wagons distributing milk daily in Worcester. 

 The total public street mileage uithin the city limits is 220, but several 

 miles are practically unoccupied. These milk wagons cover approxi- 

 mately 2,250 miles daily to supply the houses on less than 220 miles of 

 streets. Probably they travel 10 to 14 times the populated street mileage 

 every day. 



Duplication of deUvery routes is common to all retail business, but in 

 large cities measures have been taken to overcome this waste through 

 central deUvery agencies, where the parcels are assembled, sorted and 

 delivered regularly. The system has proved economical but the objections 

 to this method for the deUvery of milk are too serious to overcome, except 

 by the establishment of a co-operative milk plant. 



9. Another economic waste generally overlooked, common to other 

 commodities as well as milk, is shipping to other markets than the local 

 one. Why should Worcester, the center of one of the flnest dairying 

 sections, draw on Maine for its milk supply, when milk produced in the 

 vicinity of Worcester is shipped to Boston? Other things being equal, 

 the local market is the best market. Long-distance shipments are expen- 

 sive to some one, and cause shrinkage and deterioration in quality. The 

 producer in Massachusetts is in the very favorable position of having his 

 market at his very door, yet he frequently seeks one further afield at 

 necessarily increased cost to the consumer or a smaller return to him. 



