10 



Now that the health authorities are rightly demanding better 

 dairy methods, the producer is indeed confronted with a serious 

 problem, namely, how to conform to modern sanitary requirements 

 in the face of the increased cost of labor, grain and tools and produce 

 milk at a reasonable profit. He is meeting this problem at present in 

 a negative way, by selling his cows and trying to turn his attention to 

 other lines of agricultural industry. 



Financing the Cow. 



Few people have any idea what it costs to finance the 

 cow. We know of no New England data upon the subject. 

 The New York Experiment Station at Geneva has made a 

 study of this question as applied to the milk supply of that 

 city, and Bulletin No. 563 says: "Considered from the agri- 

 cultural standpoint, the capitalization amounts to $763 per 

 cow, of which the producer furnishes $680 and the retailer 

 $83." 



In other words, it costs the milk producers supplying milk 

 to Geneva, New York, a city of about 13,000 inhabitants, 

 $680 to finance each cow, and it costs the distributers $83 

 to finance the distribution of the milk of each cow. 



The capital invested was estimated as follows : — 



600 cows at $80 $48,000 



3,000 acres of land with buildings, 300,000 



Equipment $20 per acre, 60,000 



$408,000 

 Capital invested in distribution, ....... 50,000 



Total, $458,000 



