166 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



a moderate reserve fund, just as savings banks are required to 

 do by law. I want to briefly allude to the plan of farmers 

 owning plants with a view to contracting with the highest 

 bidder. That may be worked out successfully in some cases, 

 but my belief is that it will not be generally successful. That 

 is too long a story to go into here. 



The New England Milk Producers Association seems to take 

 a firm stand upon standardization. I like that wherever ap- 

 plied. Standardization of method of price making (not of price) 

 to producers would be very helpful, and would show all sections 

 of New England where they "were at." We would like to join 

 in such a plan provided our method was adopted. 



Our plan of price making to the farmers is the last and 

 easiest of our duties. Why not? It is just a matter of 

 bookkeeping. We pay the operating and other expenses first, 

 and pay the farmer what is left. We have a file of annual 

 reports running back more than thirty years which support the 

 statement. The only criticism or objection I have heard to our 

 expenditures is on the dividend we have paid to employees for 

 the last few years. Some farmers thought it should have gone 

 to themselves rather than the employees. My opinion and 

 explanation of the matter has generally been satisfactory to 

 such producers. For three years we have made dividends to 

 the producers, in 1912, 1913 and 1916. The patrons' dividend 

 for 1916 has not been paid yet, but it will be 5 to 10 per cent 

 (we hope the latter) of what they were paid in June, July and 

 August. In those months we bought large amounts of butter 

 and eggs from outside sources; also made and sold large quan- 

 tities of homogenized product. This was not speculation, it 

 was stuff for which we had a sure market. All the profit from 

 these sources went into the general business, and the farmers 

 profited by it, or will do so as soon as we make the dividend 

 to them in a few days. 



In making prices to producers we consider the market re- 

 quirements. If a large amount of milk is likely to be called 

 for, as in the fall, — particularly in November and December, 

 — we make the price "per hundredweight" higher to encourage 

 as many as possible to bring along milk instead of cream. When 

 milk is in oversupply, as in the spring and early summer, so 



