APPENDIX E 

 LOCAL EXPERIENCES AND INVESTIGATIONS 



NEW ENGLAND 



The milk question in all its bearings has for years been a 

 subject of difficulty and controversy in New England. This 

 region, in which large industrial communities have grown 

 up, drawing their milk supplies from ever widening circles, 

 shows doubtless the most acute milk situation to be found 

 anywhere in the United States, and one never so acute as at 

 the present time. 



In Massachusetts the population is increasing at the rate 

 of twenty per cent per decade, yet the number of milch cows 

 has fallen off in the past ten years by eighteen per cent. 

 There has also been a decrease in milch cows in neighboring 

 States (see Appendix A). Concerning this phenomenon the 

 Chief of the Massachusetts Dairy Bureau has had the fol- 

 lowing to say: 



The elimination of unprofitable dairy cows and the dropping out 

 of unsuccessful dairymen, for whatever cause, as well as the inevit- 

 able reduction of the milk supply to such a point as will bring the 

 price of milk to a profitable figures, are but the results of an in- 

 adequate price for milk. 



The decline in the number of cows is greatest in those localities 

 where milk is shipped by rail to large cities for consumption. It 

 is, therefore, perfectly natural that nearby localities are first to be 

 affected. This decline, however, does not stop, but goes on and on 

 no matter how far the area of milk supply is extended, and the near 

 future will undoubtedly see further decline, especially in northern 

 New England and even in Canada until milk producers come to a 

 realizing sense of the great fundamental fact that milk has been too 



225 



