THE CASE TO-DAY 49 



Look at his [the milkman's] duties. Up in the morning 

 around two o'clock three hundred and sixty-five days in the 

 year; hustling to get the milk to his customers. He finally 

 arrives home at eleven o'clock. Then comes the washing 

 and sterilizing of bottles, cans, and utensils used. Then a 

 late dinner, the teams to care for, the surrounding country 

 gone over to collect the milk for next day. By the time it is 

 all in, bottled, and iced for next morning's trade, it is perhaps 

 nine o'clock. Hurry to bed, for two o'clock soon arrives, 

 rain or shine. It has to go; no holidays or Sundays here. 

 Where is the new cow coming from to take the place of the 

 old one when she is gone? The blacksmith had a much 

 larger bill the past six months; the milkmen are robbing the 



good people of by asking them six cents a quart for 



milk when they should get ten cents, its value. 



Why are so many dairy farmers going out of business, 

 five in our neighborhood in the past two years? A sixth 

 one goes next month, myself. At a cent a quart increase in 

 wholesale price over four years ago I cannot make both ends 

 meet in the milk business at the present cost of production. 

 You people who think you are being imposed on better go 

 dairy farming a while. 



The kind of complaint of which this is representa- 

 tive, whether coming from the farmer-retailer or the 

 farmer who sells to a middleman dealer, cannot be dis- 

 missed without consideration. Its economic basis will 

 be examined in a later chapter. That it denotes the 

 attitude of many farmers, an attitude which must be 

 taken into account in any practical examination of 

 the milk question, is the point for present marking. 

 Altogether, the disadvantages of the farmer are many, 

 and his pleas demand the attention of reasonable men. 

 "The dairyman," as one of them puts it, "is trying to 



