122 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



found comparatively unprofitable. A table given in 

 Appendix A shows a striking decline in numbers of 

 milch cows in certain States the while populations are 

 steadily on the increase. These States are those of 

 New England and the Middle Atlantic seaboard where 

 cities large and small abound. While, through better 

 breeding, there may be some increase in the produc- 

 tivity of the milk stock, there is no doubt that the de- 

 cline in milk production in these regions is very marked. 

 The lower cost of milk production in more distant 

 regions, makes it more economical for milk contractors 

 to buy milk and pay the railroad charges from two or 

 three hundred miles away, and many of the nearer 

 farmers cannot meet the competition. This condition 

 is hard on the latter and also adds greatly to the diffi- 

 culties of milk sanitation, but it is a natural economic 

 result of the growth of urban areas, their effect on the 

 value of neighboring agricultural land, and their 

 reaching-out, octopus-like, for ever-increasing milk 

 supplies. 



THE CRUX OF THE ECONOMIC QUESTION 



While sanitarians and health officials have been 

 agitating for the sanitary improvement of milk supplies, 

 an insistent complaint has gone up on the part of the 

 producer to this effect: that everything used in the pro- 

 duction of milk has increased in cost during recent years, 

 while the price of milk has failed to rise proportionately. 

 Sometimes the assertion is even stronger, viz., that 

 the price obtained by the farmer has remained sta- 

 tionary or has even decreased. It is from the dairy 

 farmer that this complaint comes with ever-increasing 



