APPENDIX E 229 



The question of milk prices in New England reached a 

 crisis in the fall of 1916, as the result of demands by or- 

 ganized producers for a higher price from the dealers. As a 

 result of the controversy, which centered in the Boston 

 market, where an effort was made to withhold milk, some 

 price increases were obtained. At the same time the retail 

 price was raised by Boston dealers to ten cents. More re- 

 cently (1917) the producers have obtained a further increase 

 in summer wholesale price, and the retail price of staple 

 market milk has gone to eleven cents. Costs of feed and farm 

 labor are reported to have risen greatly in the last year; 

 hence the farmers' demand for the higher price. There is 

 evidence of increasingly effective organization among the 

 farmers of this region. 



Very full data regarding the milk situation in Massachu- 

 setts, embracing conditions in the milk-producing districts 

 of New England, with discussions bearing on the general 

 milk problem, have recently been published by a special 

 board of the State Department of Health.* 



NEW YORK STATE 



Reference has been made, elsewhere in this volume, to 

 the system of sanitary grading prescribed for the towns and 

 cities of New York State (other than New York City) by 

 the State Sanitary Code. This, so far as the writer knows, 

 is the only state system that has thus far been established, 

 and its working is being watched with interest. The New 

 York City system has also been referred to. (See Appen- 

 dix B.) 



The aim of a statewide system of grading is to secure a 

 desirable uniformity of standards and to induce communi- 

 ties which would otherwise remain apathetic to strengthen 



* Report of the Special Milk Board of the Massachusetts State De- 

 partment of Health, 1916. 



