MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 99 



driving to the shipping point, delivering his milk, securing his empty 

 cans, returning to the farm and unhitching his horse, is a total of 1^ 

 hours. This estimate would apply to the 163 farmers hauling milk in 

 their own wagons to the railroad platform. It would also apply to the 

 10 farmers hauling milk directly to Rochester, if we eliminate the length 

 of time spent in hauling milk within the city limits. It is fair to assume 

 of the 6 farmers hauling milk jointly not more than 3 wagons would be 

 employed, and therefore only 3 of these farmers would be engaged at one 

 time. This would make a total of 176 farmers out of the 276 from whom 

 reports were received who were engaged daily in hauling milk from their 

 farms to the shipping point. 



The value of labor per man hour is estimated at $ .349, and horse 

 labor $ .194, which are the average rates on the 141 farms on which 

 cost of production records were obtained. This makes $ .543 per hour 

 for 1 man and 1 horse. For \y 2 hours, the cost is $ .814. If we multiply 

 this by 176 farmers, the daily cost is $143.26 under the present system of 

 hauling. If we assume that the same proportion of farmers are hauling 

 milk in the entire list a,, in the list reporting, it would mean that, out of 

 the total 778 farmers, there are 496 who haul their own milk, and if we 

 apply the same costs, the daily cost is $403.74. 



It is recognized that from a business standpoint the most economical 

 system of hauling is a co-operative system. Under this arrangement 

 large trucks travel on the main roads capable of carrying not less than 

 30 cans each, and some of them carry much larger loads than this. The 

 dairy farmers living on side roads, or whose houses are located on lane- 

 ways back from the main road, find it necessary to hitch up a horse and 

 carry the milk by wagon to the main road. The farmers living directly 

 on the main road may carry their cans by hand to the platform. Such a 

 system as this has been adopted on a large scale by many dairy districts. 



It is estimated that a fair allowance for the average time required 

 to take milk out of the milk house and carry it to the main road and re- 

 turn with empty cans would be one-half hour to each farmer. If we use 

 the same cost for man and horse, this would amount to $ .271 per half 

 hour. Applying this to the 176 farmers reported as hauling milk would 

 make their daily costs for carrying milk from the milk house to the main 

 road, $47.75. Applying the same figure to the total number of farmers 

 estimated hauling, which is 496, would make the daily cost of carrying 

 milk to the main road $134.56. 



The cost of trucking on the main road in the dairy districts where 

 this is performed is charged for at the rate of ^c per quart of milk. 

 Applying this charge to the milk handled by the 176 farmers reporting 

 would make the daily cost of trucking on the main road $62.64. If we 



