June, 1933] . Retailing Milk in Laconia. 9 



Equipment on Farms: 



The equipment on tliese farms is generally not elaborate. The majority 

 have limited the number of articles to absolute essentials. The present value 

 of practically the same equipment on different farms ranges widely, how- 

 ever, due prmcipally to age and purchase price. Some is new and some ha^ 

 been in use for ten years or longer. Purchases frequently were made at a 

 public auction or through a "dicker." 



Three divisions may be made of the farms with regard to milk rooms and 

 equipment : 



Eighteen producers use the kitchen in caring for the milk and usually 

 have a cooling tank in a separate room or in the basement of the house. On 

 these farms the equipment is scattered and requires more labor to care for 

 the milk. 



Twenty-five producers have remodelled a room in the house for a milk- 

 room and this contains all the equipment. 



Eleven producers have separate buildings equipped with steam boilers or 

 stoves. Here all the equipment is located and all the operations are per- 

 formed. 



As the number of quarts sold daily increases, more expensive equipment 

 with greater capacity is purchased to facilitate handling and caring for the 

 milk. The men with a small volume have a surplus ot time and can there- 

 lore manage to get along with less expensive equipment. 



In Table 3 is shown the average value of equipment required by pro- 

 ducer-distributors according to the number of quarts sold daily. Those 

 selling less than 50 quarts daily have the lowest group average because they 

 utilize much of the kitchen equipment. They do not have a boiler, extra 

 stoves, or electric bottle washers. Their investment averages $25.53, which 

 is half the amount of the group selling from 50 to 100 quarts daily and one- 

 fifteenth that of the group selling over 100 quarts per day. To get the great- 

 est return in each instance is simply a problem of properly combining 

 equipment and labor. 



When comparisons are made on the basis of sales of milk per dollar of 

 equipment, the men distributing from 50 to 100 quarts have the best ratio. 

 They sell $49.60 worth of milk for every dollar invested in equipment. See 

 Table 4. As the volume of milk sold daily increases, there is a decided drop 

 in the ratio for two main reasons. First, more equipment is purchased. 

 Second, it is usually better equipment with greater capacity and therefore 



Table 4 



Comparison of equipment values and milk sales per dollar of equipment 



{54 producer - distributors) 



