June, 1938] The Transportation of New Hampshire Milk 5 



6. The time taken from when the truck left the garage until it ar- 

 rived at the dealer's plant. 



7. The number of men sent on the truck. 



8. The charges made for transporting milk. Variations in charges 

 for different producers on the same truck route and any special charges 

 made were noted. 



These data were obtained in most cases either from truck drivers or 

 plant officials. In a very few cases it proved impossible or imprac- 

 ticable to reach either of these sources of information and in such cases 

 data are sometimes incomplete or estimated. 



Apart from supplying a larger number of routes for detailed analy- 

 sis, the inclusion of all truck routes within the state was unnecessary 

 for the purposes of this study. It was felt, however, that the study to 

 follow — one showing possible rearrangement and reorganization of 

 milk transportation within New Hampshire — would require a knowl- 

 edge of all truck routes in an area, and not only those supplying 

 a particular market or a particular station. For this reason, all com- 

 mercial truck routes securing milk from New Hampshire farms (in so 

 far as the routes could be found) were studied. 



As in the first bulletin of this series,^ this study is a cross section 

 analysis, and consequently the time when the study was made influences 

 the results obtained. The year 1937 was one of unsettled conditions 

 in the Boston market though local New Hampshire markets were quiet. 

 During the first part of the year when a milk strike was in operation 

 against certain Boston dealers, many producers formerly delivering to 

 dealers" plants diverted their milk to co-operatively owned or controlled 

 plants. Three co-operative plants were built (two at locations where 

 dealers' plants were already operating) and one dealer's plant was 

 bought by a co-operative. Prices paid at plants varied tremendously 

 with little relation to distance from market, quality of milk, regularity 

 of production, or other customary price influencing factors. Follow- 

 ing the reinstatement of the Federal Order in the Boston market in 

 August. 1937, (even though only a part of the distributors complied 

 with the order) extreme price variations between distributors vanished 

 and more settled conditions returned to the Boston milkshed. 



Despite these troubled market conditions, the trucking of milk was 

 not greatly affected. A few new routes were formed and in some cases 

 a few producers were shifted between truck drivers, but in general, 

 truck routes were not altered. Almost the only significant result was 

 that in the two northern towns, Lancaster and Colebrook, where new 

 plants were built, many truck drivers delivered milk to an additional 

 plant. How long a situation where the same truck picks up milk for 

 two or three plants will endure is difficult to predict, but six months 

 after the new plants were opened very few changes in routes were re- 

 ported. 



It appeared, therefore, as though 1937, in spite of being a year of 

 change in the Boston market, would give a picture of trucking in New 

 Hampshire that showed little distortion. Economic changes take place 



' MacLeod, Alan; The Milksheds of New Hampshire; New Hampshire 

 Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 295, 1937. 



