32 New Hampshire Experiment Station [Bulletin 332 



\\ ould have led producers to expect higher prices from Boston and if no 

 other factors were taken into consideration and no obstacles to shifting 

 were present, a transfer of sales from Manchester to Boston would be 

 expected to result. And, in the last half of the period, after price relation- 

 ships had changed in favor of Manchester, they would be expected to 

 influence producers to leave Boston for Manchester. 



And to a hmited extent this has taken place. At least, during 1931-35 

 there was no sustained change in the number of producers shipping, 

 whereas in 1935-39, there was a small but significant net increase in ship- 

 pers to Manchester. But these changes have been very small, and are 

 nothing like those which might be expected, had producers reacted to 

 prices alone. 



That forces, preventing change in market outlets, must be strong is 

 shown, not by the small net changes throughout the period in the pro- 

 portion of producers shipping, but by the large numbers of farmers who 

 did not change their market throughout the period. This section has been 

 largely devoted to a discussion of these forces. They are present where- 

 ever producers sell milk at wholesale, though of course their importance 

 relative to the importance of price difl^erentials varies greatly. In Haver- 

 hill, their importance is great; so great, that only one out of every nine 

 producers has shifted between the Boston and Manchester markets in a 

 period of eight years, (net change from beginning to end of period was 

 3 per cent) even though the country plants serving these two markets 

 were only about 5 miles apart and the price differential between markets 

 was at times substantial. 



THE JEFFERSON, N. H. AREA 



The following discussion covers for the town of Jefferson much the 

 same ground gone over in the previous sections for Haverhill. Conse- 

 quently, many of the points elaborated upon in that section are given 

 much shorter treatment here. In general, the approach is similar and the 

 technique used identical. 



The Boston market through country stations in the town of Lan- 

 caster, and the Berlin market through city plants in Berlin, compete for 

 milk in the town of Jefferson. Producers' markets in the spring of 1939 

 are shown in figure 12, which also shows the number of times producers 

 changed markets in the eight years under study. 



Historical 



( a ) B erlin Shippers 



Some milk has gone from Jefferson to Berlin in each of the eight 

 years preceding March, 1939 (the period covered by this study). It is 

 necessary to go back some years earlier to find a time when no milk 

 flowed in that direction. The first entrance of Berlin dealers into the 

 area took place about 1920, when producers who were shipping to plants 

 in Lancaster were persuaded to change their market. 



These shipments to Berlin were often induced by the promise of 

 high prices arid other attractive terms of purchase. Unfortunately for 

 producers, these promises were sometimes not fulfilled and many in- 



