THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 127 



to anyone who has looked below the surface of this question, 

 that many dairy farmers to-day are not receiving a price for 

 their milk which will yield a fair profit. ... In view of the 

 increased cost of producing and handling milk and consider- 

 ing its high food value, consumers in many cities are paying 

 a price which is much too low to allow a reasonable profit to 

 the producer. The dairyman receives at his shipping station 

 from about 2 cents to 5 cents per quart for his milk, depend- 

 ing upon the time of year and upon the city in which his 

 product is marketed. Probably the bulk of market milk in 

 this country is sold by the farmers at about 3)^ cents per 

 quart, whereas the price to the consumer in the various cities 

 ranges from about 6 cents to 10 cents per quart, depending 

 upon the locality and upon whether the milk is sold " loose" 

 or bottled. 



It is extremely doubtful if the dairyman in many cases re- 

 ceived enough for his milk to pay for the bare cost of production 

 at these prices. Bulletin 73, issued by the experiment station 

 at Storrs, Conn., gives the cost of producing milk on the 

 experimental farm for a period of five years. When the milk 

 produced by the herd was figured as worth 4 cents a quart at 

 the farm, the business was conducted at a loss every year out 

 of the five. Where the milk was figured at 5 cents a quart at 

 the farm, the books showed a net profit four years out of the 

 five. Results similar to these have been obtained at several 

 other stations. 5 



Mr. Kelly presents in his paper some exceedingly in- 

 teresting figures which the present writer has elaborated 

 and brought up to date and plotted in Figs. 15-20. A 

 glance at these charts will show that the rise in the retail 

 price of milk as compared with some other staple food 

 products has been relatively slow. The figures upon 

 which these curves are based were compiled by the 



