124 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



past year gave him no profit whatever on his product, 

 but brought him out just even. If this is true of the 

 most successful farmer in New England, what is to be 

 said of the great majority of the men engaged in milk 

 production?" 3 Magazine articles have appeared under 

 the titles, "The marketing of milk how farmers are 

 driven out of business and the cost of living is forced 

 up 7 ' and "How New England dairy farmers are driven 

 out of business." * While such statements are usually 

 couched in general terms, they are, coming from many 

 quarters, significant. 



We have already, indeed, in Chapter II, referred to 

 the plaint of the farmer, but it is so outstanding a 

 feature of the milk situation to-day that a few further 

 words here, before proceeding to its economic basis, 

 will not be out of place. Some of the more specific 

 complaints of the farmer are expressed in the following 

 passage from the editorial column of a Southern news- 

 paper: 



The dairyman is a manufacturer of milk. His cows are 

 his machines and very delicate ones. They are liable to 

 disease and death. At the best they will not produce milk 

 the year around, probably only two-thirds or three-quarters 

 of it. He must have enough of them to allow some of them 

 to occasionally "loaf on their job." If he has much of a 

 herd he must keep a registered bull costing in the thousands, 

 often. ... [A high-bred cow] will cost as much as $300 in 

 her heiferhood, in many cases. . . . 



These machines and their product alike require great care 

 and attention to prevent them from becoming diseased 

 themselves or being the means of diseasing the dairyman's 



* Current Opinion) November and December, 1915. 



