170 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



milk plants, etc., and its cost. Facts well recognized 

 regarding the milk problem in general should be as- 

 sumed. It is well to bear in mind that some local data 

 have primarily an administrative value, while others 

 are assembled chiefly in order to convince governing 

 and appropriating bodies of the necessity of control. 

 In proposing regulation the recommendations of the 

 National Commission on Milk Standards should be 

 consulted. In establishing the grading system it is of 

 course necessary to specify a thorough working mech- 

 anism as a prerequisite to the proper enforcement of 

 the system. 



CENTRALIZATION, COOPERATIVE PLANS, 

 MUNICIPALIZATION 



The difficulties, sanitary and economic, of the milk 

 problem under present trade conditions are such that 

 various plans for centralization and cooperation have 

 been proposed. These may be classified as fol- 

 lows: 



1. Farmers' cooperative milk depots in country dis- 

 tricts. Such a plan has been described by the Boston 

 Chamber of Commerce committee as quoted on pages 

 142-44 of the present volume. Under this head may 

 also be included plans for the organization of such 

 depots under the auspices of city organizations, as in 

 the case of the Homer plan (Appendix C). 



2. Farmers 1 cooperative city marketing, involving sale 

 of milk by bidding or auction to city dealers, with the 

 object of breaking up price-dictation by middlemen. 

 This has recently been proposed by New England 

 producers shipping milk to Boston. 



