28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is actual loss, or a margin so small as to be quite unequal to the 

 necessities of the case. The trouble is the system upon which 

 the business is conducted. 



At the present time, the system of selling milk in this Com- 

 monwealth, and throughout most of the country, is radically 

 wrong. There is active competition in the market ; those hav- 

 incr the commodity, which they fear may spoil on their hands, 

 or desiring to extend their trade, undersell their neighbors and 

 keep the retail prices below what it is reasonable that the con- 

 sumer should pay. The dealers (wholesalers, contractors, or 

 whoever come next), take their protit out anyhow. The trans- 

 portation must be paid, whatever it be. Then, what happens to 

 l)e left is all that is offered to the producer. The whole loss 

 falls on him, and it is because of this system that farmers have 

 let their milk go for two cents, and even less, when consumers 

 pay six or seven. Indeed, I know of cases where the producer 

 of milk has received absolutely nothing for it, — what is known 

 as surplus milk, in the cities, sent to commission men, being 

 sold for less than enough to pay the freight and commission 

 charges. Then, 



II. "How SHALL THE MiLK BE SOLD ? " 



There is but a single answer. Milk must pass more directly 

 from the producer to the consumer. A quart of milk is too 

 small and too perishable an article to be often handled, and it 

 has not value enough to yield a protit to several persons. 



To bring about any sort of healthy condition to the milk-busi- 

 ness, the present system must be exactly reversed. A fair 

 price must be fixed as that to be received by the producer, 

 based upon his investment and the current cost of production, 

 and allowing a proper profit. There is no reason for much 

 fluctuation. Generally, when certain articles are dear, others 

 are cheap, — a good season usually follow^s a bad one — or, at 

 least, the laws of compensation and average are such that the 

 actual cost of making milk three hundred and sixty-five days m 

 the year is just about the same, year after year. There is dif- 

 ference in localities ; ])ut we are now considering milk made at 

 places which are so situated as to be able to reach a market. 

 For all such, in this State, I am inclined to place the full cost 

 of producing a quart of good milk, ready for market, at three 



