138 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



it is to be hoped that not only will justice be done 

 to the farmer, but also that he will make use of 

 the means of his own advancement, thereby bene- 

 fiting simultaneously the consuming public and him- 

 self. 



FACTORS IN THE FINAL COST OF MILK 



The various factors which make up the total cost of a 

 unit of milk may logically be considered under the 

 following heads: (1) Production, (2) Transportation, 

 (3) Handling in country or city milk plant, and (4) De- 

 livery to the consumer. A detailed consideration of 

 these would split them up into a number of items to 

 be figured separately. Thus, for production, which 

 includes all that is chargeable to the farmer, the sub- 

 heads would be: interest on investment; insurance, 

 taxes, etc.; cost of feed; labor cost; miscellaneous 

 charges; and hauling to the station or milk plant when 

 the farmer does not retail his own product.* 



A number of special studies dealing with the costs of 

 the various processes and stages have been made, some 

 of the findings of which are gathered together in Ap- 

 pendix D. In considering cost figures it must be re- 

 membered that very few dairy farmers keep even 

 approximately accurate records, so that at the present 

 time it is impossible to get data of this kind except 

 by means of special investigation; and also that, on 

 account of trade reticence, it is difficult to obtain in- 



* Further details on figuring milk costs are given in the paper by 

 Kelly already referred to and in the various special studies cited in 

 Appendix D. 



