104 MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 



The reasons for the conducting of these examinations in these other 

 cities were because it would be of great value in judging of the efficiency 

 of the work in Rochetser to be able to make comparisons between the 

 total costs and the individual cost items in Rochester and similar cost 

 items of other cities, and also because in the cities of Ottawa and Phil- 

 adelphia economies have been instituted which might point the way 

 toward the adoption of similar economies in Rochester. 



In assembling all of the facts and figures accumulated by the in- 

 spectors and the cost accountants, it is recognized that the tabulation of 

 these results could be drawn up in a number of different ways. The 

 chief object which must be kept in mind in putting together these figures 

 is the total cost for the City of Rochester. This means that the milk 

 business of the City of Rochester must be looked upon as a unit. The 

 inhabitants of the city are not particularly interested in the business of 

 any individual dealer but in the business of the city as a whole. There- 

 fore, the object of the tabulations which have been made has been to 

 get together under a single head all of the different cost items for all of 

 the dealers in the city so that a single simple statement can be made 

 showing what the total milk supply for the entire city costs and what each 

 of the different branches of expense connected with this supply costs. 



In order to accomplish this, the figures must be assembled first for 

 the individual dealers. This was done on a series of cards or report 

 blanks on file in the office of the survey. It has not been thought neces- 

 sary to present the individual costs of each individual dealer separately. 

 In order, however, to secure an accurate statement for the entire city, 

 it has been necessary that the costs of each dealer should be set down in 

 some form and the best method seemed to be to divide the dealers into 

 three groups for this purpose: the first group being dealers handling 

 500 quarts of milk or less; the second group dealers handling from 501 

 to 1,000 quarts; and the third group dealers handling over 1,000 quarts. 



Before presenting these tabulations one other consideration is de- 

 sirable. The cost of labor naturally belongs in a separate division from 

 the cost of supplies and other plant expenses. Labor, being the human 

 element in the business, lends itself to reorganization and business effi- 

 ciency more easily than the purchase of supplies or other plant charges. 

 Consequently, in this work, labor is separately considered and the payroll 

 and salaries have all been studied from the standpoint of the labor per- 

 formed as a separate problem. 



In Table No. 45 are presented the labor costs for the first group of 

 milk dealers, handling 500 quarts or less. 



