1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



69 



MILK RAISING. 



We observe in the papers reports of the 

 proceedino;s of a meeting in Boston of persons 

 engaged in producing milk. The apparent 

 object is, to take such action as shall increase 

 the price paid the farmer for his milk at the 

 barn or depot. We believe in meetings for 

 discussion, and for the diffusion of knowledge. 

 Farmers necessarily are scattered, and so have 

 not the advantage which manufacturers or even 

 mechanics enjoy of comparing views and act- 

 ing in concert. Such meetings, therefore, 

 if properly conducted, may result in much 

 good, yet they are liable to lead to much evil, 

 or what is more probable, to end in no practi- 

 cal or valuable result. 



Demand and Supply. 



We must remember that the price of farm 

 products, as of everything else, is governed 

 by the great law of demand and supply. 



To use a homely illustration, if ten men are 

 in a party remote from home, and there are 

 but nine hats, hats are in great demand ; but 

 if there chance to be eleven hats for the ten 

 heads, hats are abundant and nobody wants the 

 spare one. A certain amount of milk must be 

 used, varying of course, to some extent with 

 the price. If much more than the usual quan- 

 tity is produced, nobody will buy it, except at 

 a low price. If the supply is short, hotels and 

 babies must still have their milk, even by pay- 

 ing double price. 



A combination among farmers that they will 

 sell no milk under fifty cents a can, might com- 

 pel the contractor to pay that price for a very 

 short time, until others outside the combina- 

 tion could undersell, as they surely would very 

 soon. At that high price, the production of 

 milk would be doubled in six months, and as 

 neither hotel customers, babies, nor anybody 

 else, could be persuaded to use double quanti- 

 ties, there would be an over supply, and the 

 farmers would undersell each other, and force 

 the price below even a fair one. 



"WTiat is a Fair Price P 



A fair price for a producer to receive, is the 

 price that will, in the course of the year, pay 

 him fairly for the cost of maintaining his cows, 

 including the interest on their value, the loss 

 by depreciation and accident, and reasonable 

 pay for his care and labor, taking into account 

 the return he gets in the manure left on his 

 farm. And this is also a fair price for the 

 contractor to pay. A fair price for the con- 



tractor to receive in the city, is to be estimated 

 in the same way. He has heavy investments 

 for horses, wagons and perhaps railway cars 

 and ice-houses. He pays largely for his milk- 

 routes, and employs many men for whom he is 

 responsible. He guaranties payment to the 

 farmer, and takes the trouble and risk of col- 

 lecting pay of his customers. To do all this 

 well demands a man of business capacity more 

 than ordinary, who could earn a good salary in 

 other business, and he is entitled to be paid 

 accordingly. We are apt to look only at the 

 profit such a man is making and to think he 

 gets more than his fair share, when in fact he 

 is paying us more than an inferior man could 

 pay us and yet lose money in his business. 

 How shall the Price be Fixed? 

 The complaint is that the contractor fixes 

 the price, and the producer has no voice in the 

 matter. This is no doubt often true. There 

 being no concert of action, no meetings even 

 of the producers, the contractor can do no oth- 

 erwise than fix his own price, and the producer 

 must take it or cease supplying milk. It seems 

 to us that a meeting of the farmers and the ap- 

 pointment of a small committee, small enough 

 to be efficient, to represent the producers and 

 advise with the contractors as to the price for 

 each quarter of a year, might produce good re- 

 sults. The interest of all parties is to fix the 

 price which the laws of demand and supply 

 would determine, neither too high nor too low, 

 and producers would feel far better satisfied, 

 even at old prices, if they thus had a voice in 

 the matter. Beyond this, we do not see that 

 much can be done. Combinations to raise the 

 price of produce or labor usually result in little 

 good, while consultation and temperate discus- 

 sion and action may serve the good of all par- 

 ties, including farmer, contractor and con- 

 sumer. * 



Salt and Lime as Manure. — Mr. George 

 Steele, of Thorndale, Chester Co., Pa., who 

 is on a farm which was exhausted and its cul- 

 tivation abandoned seventy-five years ago, 

 but which has been reclaimed from barrenness 

 by an improved system of treatment, in which 

 lime has been extensively used, informs the 

 New York Farmer's Club that salt has a very 

 beneficial effect on his land as a manure for 

 wheat. The primitive rock is talc slate, and 

 the soil gravel, clay and loam. The salt and 

 lime have been applied after plough''' iff. and 



