140 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



milkmen make a contract with the producers and the dealers, which 

 states that they shall produce good milk, and if it turns out that 

 the milk is bad, why, you cannot do anything about it. You have 

 no clear, good basis on which to make a contract. This was the 

 basis that we arrived at, and I may say that, during this year, a 

 part of the milk was handled by a large company, and more than 

 half of it was handled by small retailers. This was the situation 

 in 1909- (Indicating chart.) This sharp drop from there to there 

 (indicating) is due to the fact that about half of the milk was con- 

 tracted for this year on a sliding scale, consisting of a standard 

 price for good milk, in the good class, and a half a cent addi- 

 tional for milk in the excellent class, and a cut of half a cent if 

 milk is in the medium class. The practice makes good milk a good 

 business proposition, and when the milk comes up to that standard, 

 and the price is forthcoming at once, it makes the production of 

 that milk profitable. The farmers, out of self-respect, make an 

 article as good as they can for the price that they receive. 



This situation has continued until, in 1910, not at the end of the 

 year, but at the close of the third quarter, of the year, this is our 

 situation: (Indicating chart.) In this year the milk was practi- 

 cally all contracted for on the basis of our official score. The con- 

 tract between the men is on the sliding scale, based upon the offi- 

 cial score. If the milk is in the excellent class, a certain extra 

 price is given; if it falls to the medium class, the price is cut. 

 This is the effect of the law of supply and demand. The farmers 

 rose to the situation just as rapidly as the financial returns made 

 it possible for them to do so. 



Now, we came to another aspect of the situation. The price 

 had risen until the wholesale price of milk had gone up to three 

 and a half cents for good and four cents for excellent grades. At 

 the same time, milk was being produced within six miles of Geneva, 

 that sold during a part of the year, I believe, for two and a half 

 cents at the milk station. There you have the situation. There 

 was a strong tendency for the milk outside to break into our mar- 

 ket because the difference in price gave a dealer the idea that it 

 would be a good plan to buy this cheap milk, which could be bought 

 at around three cents or a little over, and retail it in our market, 

 trusting to the foolishness of the consuming public to buy a cheap 

 milk at a cent a quart less than the best milk would sell for. 



Now, there is enough intelligence in this city, as to milk, to war- 

 rant the effort to sell the one per cent of high grade milk that is 

 used. When you figure one per cent on the basis of a city of 20,- 

 000, it does not leave a very large number of people to buy high 

 grade milk, and if the other ninety-nine per cent prefer to still buy 



